L 
/ 


THE    LAWTON    GIRL 


BY    HAROLD    FREDERIC 

In    Uniform  Binding.     Price,  -$1.50  each 

IN    THE    SIXTIES 

IN  THE  VALLEY 

THE  LAWTON  GIRL 

SETH'S  BROTHER'S  WIFE 

THE  DAMNATION  OF  THERON  WARE 


The   Lawton   Girl 


BY 

HAROLD   FREDERIC 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

MDCCCXCVII 


COPYRIGHT,  1890,  BY 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


PSH07 


In  compliance  with  current  copyright 

law,  U.  C.  Library  Bindery  produced 

this  replacement  volume  on  paper 

that  meets  the  ANSI  Standard  Z39.48- 

1984  to  replace  the  irreparably 

deteriorated  original 

1996 


TO  THE  DEAREST  OF  OLD  FRIENDS, 
EDWARD    ALOYSIUS    TERRY 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 
AND  YET  You  KNEW  !  " 


CHAPTER   II. 
CONFRONTING  THE  ORDEAL 10 

CHAPTER   III. 
YOUNG  MR.  BOYCE'S  MEDITATIONS 22 

CHAPTER   IV. 
REUBEN  TRACY 33 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  TURKEY-SHOOT 46 

CHAPTER  VI. 
THANKSGIVING  AT  THE  MINSTERS' 56 


viii  Contents. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  PRODIGAL  DAUGHTER'S  WELCOME 72 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
THANKSGIVING  AT  THE  LAWTONS'.  . .  88 


CHAPTER   IX. 
THE  PARTNERSHIP 


CHAPTER   X. 
MR.  SCHUYLER  TENNEY 


CHAPTER   XI. 
MRS.  MINSTER'S  NEW  LEGAL  ADVISER  ...................  I28 

CHAPTER   XII. 
THE  THESSALY  CITIZENS'  CLUB  ............................       i 


CHAPTER   XIII. 
THE  DAUGHTER  OF  THE  MILLIONS  ......................  .  .  155 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
HORACE  EMBARKS  UPON  THE  ADVENTURE  .................  .   171 


Contents.  ix 

PACK 

CHAPTER   XV. 
THE  LAWTON  GIRL'S  WORK  187 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
A  GRACIOUS  FRIEND  RAISED  UP 196 

CHAPTER   XVII. 
TRACY  HEARS  STRANGE  THINGS 211 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 
A  SIMPLE  BUSINESS  TRANSACTION 223 

CHAPTER   XIX. 
No  MESSAGE  FOR  MAMMA 235 

CHAPTER   XX. 
THE  MAN  FROM  NEW  YORK 248 

CHAPTER   XXI. 
REUBEN'S  MOMENTOUS  FIRST  VISIT 258 

CHAPTER   XXII. 

"SAY   THAT   THERE   IS    NO   ANSWER" 274 


x  Contents. 

PACK 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 
HORACE'S  PATH  BECOMES  TORTUOUS  ......................  289 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 
A  VEHEMENT  RESOLVE  ...................................  3o4 

CHAPTER    XXV. 
A  VISITATION  OF  ANGELS  .................................     ! 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 
OVERWHELMING  DISCOMFITURE  ............................  336 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 
THE  LOCKOUT  ...........................................  351 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 
IN  THE  ROBBER'S  CAVE  ...................................  361 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 
THE  MISTS  CLEARING  AWAY  ..............................  378 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

JESSICA'S  GREAT  DESPAIR  ....................  .  ............  391 


Contents.  xi 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    XXXI. 
A  STRANGE  ENCOUNTER  4°2 

CHAPTER   XXXII. 
THE  ALARM  AT  THE  FARMHOUSE 4*7 

CHAPTER    XXXIII. 
RACING  TOWARD  THE  REDDENED  SKY 429 

CHAPTER    XXXIV. 
THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  MOB 43$ 

CHAPTER    XXXV. 
THE  SHINING  REWARD 45i 

CHAPTER    XXXVI. 
"  I  TELL  You  I  HAVE  LIVED  IT  DOWN  1 " 462 


THE   LAWTON  GIRL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

"  AND    YET    YOU    KNEW  !  " 

"THESSALY!  Ten  minutes  foh  refreshments!" 
called  out  the  brisk  young  colored  porter,  advancing 
up  the  aisle  of  the  drawing-room  car,  whisk-broom 
in  hand.  "  Change  cahs  foh  Thanksgiving  turkey 
and  cranberry  sauce,"  he  added,  upon  humorous 
after-thought,  smiling  broadly  as  he  spoke,  and 
chuckling  to  himself. 

This  friendly  remark  was  addressed  in  confidence 
to  a  group  of  three  persons  at  the  forward  end  of 
the  car,  who  began  preparations  for  the  halt  as  the 
clanking  of  the  wheels  beneath  them  grew  more 
measured,  and  the  carriage  trembled  and  lurched 
under  the  pressure  of  the  brakes.  But  the  cheery 
grin  which  went  with  it  was  exclusively  directed  to 
the  two  ladies  who  rose  now  from  their  arm-chairs, 
and  who  gently  relaxed  their  features  in  amused 
response. 

Whether  the  porter  was  moved  only  by  the  come 
liness  of  these  faces  and  their  gracious  softening, 


2  The  Lawton  Girl. 

or  whether  he  was  aware  that  they  were  patrician 
countenances,  so  to  speak,  and  belonged  to  Mrs. 
and  Miss  Minster,  persons  of  vast  wealth  and  im 
portance  and  considerable  stockholders  in  this  very 
railroad,  is  not  clear.  But  he  made  a  great  bustle 
over  getting  their  parcels  down  from  the  racks  over 
head,  and  helping  them  to  don  their  outer  garments. 
He  smoothed  the  rich  fur  of  their  sealskin  cloaks 
with  almost  affectionate  strokes  of  his  coffee-col 
ored  palms,  and  made  a  pile  of  their  belongings  on 
the  next  seat  with  an  exaggerated  show  of  dexterity 
and  zeal.  This  done,  he  turned  for  a  cursory  mo 
ment  to  the  young  man  who  constituted  the  third 
member  of  the  group,  peremptorily  pulled  up  the 
collar  of  his  overcoat  to  the  top  of  his  ears,  and  was 
back  again  with  his  arms  full  of  the  ladies'  bundles 
as  the  train  came  to  a  stop. 

"  This  way,  ladies,"  he  said,  marching  jauntily 
under  his  burden  toward  the  door. 

"  I  will  bid  you  good-day,  Mr.  Boyce,"  said  the 
elder  of  the  women,  speaking  with  somewhat  formal 
politeness,  but  offering  her  hand. 

"  Good-day,  sir,"  the  younger  said  simply,  with  a 
little  inclination  of  the  head,  but  with  no  "  Mr. 
Boyce,"  and  no  proffer  of  her  gloved  fingers. 

The  young  man  murmured  "  so  delighted  to  have 
had  the  privilege  "  between  low  answering  bows,  and 
then  stood  watching  the  two  fur-draped  figures  move 
to  the  door  and  disappear,  with  a  certain  blankness 
of  expression  on  his  face  which  seemed  to  say  that 
he  had  hoped  for  a  more  cordial  leave-taking.  Then 


"And  Yet   You  Knew/"  3 

he  smiled  with  reassurance,  folded  up  and  pocketed 
his  thin  car-cap,  adjusted  his  glossy  silk  hat  care 
fully,  and  proceeded  to  tug  out  his  own  valise. 
It  was  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  get  the  cum 
brous  bag  down  off  the  high  icy  steps  to  the 
ground.  It  was  even  more  disagreeable  to  carry  it 
along  when  he  had  got  it  down,  and  after  a  few 
paces  he  let  it  fall  with  a  grunt  of  vexation,  and 
looked  about  him  for  assistance.  "  How  much  bet 
ter  they  do  these  things  in  Europe  !  "  was  what  he 
thought  as  he  looked. 

All  day  long  he  had  been  journeying  over  a  snow 
bound  country — with  white-capped  houses,  white- 
frozen  streams,  white -tufted  firs,  white- mantled 
fields  and  roads  and  hillsides,  forever  dodging  one 
another  in  the  dissolving  panorama  before  his  win 
dow.  The  train  drawn  up  for  the  moment  behind 
him  might  have  come  in  from  the  North  Pole,  so 
completely  laden  with  snow  was  every  flat  surface— 
of  roof  and  beam,  of  platform  and  window-frame 
— presented  by  the  dark  line  of  massive  coaches. 
Yet  it  seemed  to  him  that  there  was  more  snow, 
more  bleak  and  cheerless  evidence  of  winter,  here 
in  his  native  Thessaly,  than  he  had  seen  anywhere 
else.  It  was  characteristic,  too,  he  felt,  that  no 
body  should  appear  to  care  how  much  inconvenience 
this  snow  caused.  There  was  but  an  indifferently 
shovelled  path  leading  from  where  he  stood,  across 
the  open  expanse  of  side-tracks  to  the  old  and  dingy 
d£pot  beyond — cleared  for  the  use  of  such  favored 
passengers  as  might  alight  from  the  drawing-room 


4  The  Lawton  Girl. 

section  of  the  train.  Those  who  had  arrived  in 
the  ordinary  cars  at  the  rear  were  left  to  flounder 
through  the  smoke-begrimed  drifts  as  best  they 
could. 

The  foremost  of  these  unconsidered  travellers  were 
coming  up,  red  and  angry  with  the  exertion  of  carry 
ing  their  own  luggage,  and  plunging  miserably  along 
through  the  great  ridges  of  discolored  snow  heaped 
between  the  tracks,  when  Mr.  Boyce's  impatient 
eye  fell  upon  somebody  he  knew. 

"Hello  there,  Lawton!"  he  shouted.  "Come 
here  and  help  me  with  this  infernal  bag,  won't 
you  !  " 

The  man  to  whom  he  called  had  been  gazing 
down  the  yard  at  the  advancing  wayfarers.  He 
looked  up  now,  hesitated  for  a  moment,  then  came 
forward  slowly,  shuffling  through  the  snow  to  the 
path.  He  was  a  middle-aged,  thin,  and  round- 
shouldered  man,  weak  and  unkempt  as  to  face  and 
hair  and  beard,  with  shabby  clothes  and  no  over 
coat.  Although  he  wore  mittens,  he  still  from  force 
of  habit  had  his  hands  plunged  half-way  into  his 
trousers  pockets.  Even  where  it  would  have  been 
easy  to  step  over  the  intermittent  drifts  and  mounds 
at  the  sides  of  the  tracks,  he  shiftlessly  pushed  his 
feet  through  them  instead. 

"  Hello,  Hod  ! "  he  said  slowly,  with  a  kind  of 
melancholy  hesitation,  "  is  that  you  ?  " 

Young  Mr.  Boyce  ignored  the  foolish  question, 
and  indicated  the  valise  with  a  nod  of  his  head. 

"  I  wish  you'd  get  that  thing  down  to  the  house, 


"And  Yet   You  Knew!"  5 

Ben.  And  take  these  checks  for  my  trunks,  too, 
will  you,  and  see  that  they're  brought  down.  Where 
is  that  expressman,  anyway  ?  Why  isn't  he  here, 
on  hand,  attending  to  his  business?" 

"I  don't  know  as  I  can,  Hod,"  said  the  man  with 
out  an  overcoat,  idly  kicking  into  a  heap  of  mingled 
cinders  and  snow  with  his  wet,  patched  boots,  and 
glancing  uneasily  down  the  yard.  "  I'm  down  here 
a-waitin' — for — that  is  to  say,  I've  got  somethin' else 
to  do.  Prob'ly  you  can  get  some  other  fellow  out 
side  the  deepo." 

Mr.  Boyce's  answer  to  this  was  to  add  a  bright 
half-dollar  to  the  brass  baggage-checks  he  already 
held  in  his  hand.  The  coin  was  on  the  top,  and 
Ben  Lawton  could  not  help  looking  at  it.  The 
temptation  was  very  great. 

"  I  ought  to  stay  here,  you  know,"  he  faltered. 
"Fact  is,  honest  Injun!  I  got  to  stay  here!  I'm 
lookin'  for — somebody  a-comin'  in  on  this  train." 

"  Well,  you  can  look,  can't  you,  and  do  this  too  ? 
There's  no  hurry  about  the  things.  If  they're  home 
two  hours  hence  it  will  be  time  enough." 

"  Yes,  I  know,  it  might  be  so  as  I  could  do  it, 
later  on,"  said  Lawton,  taking  one  of  his  hands  from 
his  pocket  and  stretching  it  tentatively  toward  the 
money.  Then  a  second  thought  prompted  him  to 
waver,  and  he  drew  back  the  hand,  muttering  feebly: 
"  Then,  again,  it  might  be  so  as  I  couldn't  do  it. 
You  better  get  somebody  else.  And  yet — I  don't 
know — p'raps — " 

Mr.  Boyce  settled  the  question  by  briskly  reach- 


6  The  Lawton  Girl. 

ing  down  for  his  bag.  "  All  right !  Please  your 
self,"  he  said.  "  I've  got  no  more  time  to  waste 
with  you.  I'll  do  it  myself." 

Before  he  had  fairly  lifted  the  valise  from  the 
ground,  the  irresolute  Lawton  made  up  his  mind. 
"  Put  her  down  again,  Hod,"  he  said.  "  I'll  manage 
it  somehow." 

He  took  the  half-dollar  in  his  mittened  hand,  and 
tossed  it  gently  up  and  down  on  the  striped  blue 
and  white  surface  of  yarn.  "  It's  the  first  money 
I've  earned  for  over  a  week,"  he  remarked,  as  if  in 
self-defence. 

Even  as  he  spoke,  a  young  woman  in  black  who 
had  been  wandering  about  in  the  de"pot  yard  came 
running  excitedly  up  to  him.  She  gave  a  little  in 
articulate  cry  of  recognition  as  she  drew  near.  He 
turned,  saw  her,  and  in  a  bewildered  way  opened 
his  arms.  She  dropped  her  bundles  and  bandbox 
heedlessly  into  the  snow,  and  threw  herself  upon 
his  breast,  hiding  her  face  on  his  threadbare  coat, 
and  sobbing  audibly. 

Mr.  Boyce  had  been  entirely  unprepared  for  this 
demonstration,  and  looked  wonderingly  upon  the 
couple  who  stood  in  the  path  before  him.  After  a 
moment  or  two  of  silent  inspection  he  made  as  if 
to  pass  them,  but  they  did  not  move.  The  girl  still 
hid  her  face,  although  she  had  ceased  to  weep,  and 
Lawton  bent  his  head  down  over  hers,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes  and  his  gaze  fixed  vaguely  on  the  snow 
beyond  her,  while  he  tenderly  patted  her  shoulder 
with  the  hand  that  did  not  hold  the  half-dollar. 


"And   Yet   You  Knew!"  7 

"All  right,  then,  Ben,"  Mr.  Boyce  called  out.  "  If 
you'll  just  let  me  pass,  I'll  walk  on.  Have  the 
things  there  by  five." 

At  the  first  sound  of  this  voice,  the  girl  raised  her 
head.  She  turned  now,  her  tear-stained  face  lumi 
nous  with  a  deep,  wrathful  emotion,  and  looked  at 
the  speaker. 

The  young  man  did  not  for  more  than  an  instant 
try  to  meet  this  glance.  His  cheek  flushed  and  his 
eyes  sought  the  ground.  He  lifted  his  hand  with 
a  hurried,  awkward  gesture  toward  his  hat,  made  a 
hasty  plunge  around  them  through  the  snow,  and 
wralked  swiftly  away  past  the  gate  into  the  de"pot. 

The  girl's  intent  gaze  followed  the  retiring  Mr. 
Boyce  until  he  disappeared.  Then  it  shifted  sud 
denly  and  fell  upon  the  face  of  Ben  Lawton,  from 
whose  embrace  she  had  now  withdrawn. 

The  poor  man  made  no  effort  whatsoever  to 
brave  its  searching  and  reproachful  inquiry.  He 
balanced  the  half-dollar  on  his  mitten's  edge,  watched 
the  exercise  with  a  piteously  futile  pretence  of  in 
terest,  and  looked  as  if  he  was  about  to  cry. 

"  What  '  things  '  were  those  he  spoke  of,  father?" 
she  asked,  after  a  long  pause. 

The  passengers  who  had  temporarily  left  the 
train  for  the  doubtful  solace  of  the  refreshment 
counter  were  beginning  now  to  return.  Some  of 
them  jostled  past  the  couple  who  stood  blocking 
the  narrow  path;  and  one  of  these,  a  stout  and  chol 
eric  man  in  a  silk  skull-cap  and  a  fur-lined  overcoat, 
brusquely  kicked  the  big  valise  out  of  the  way, 


8  The  Lawton  Girl. 

overturning  it  in  the  snow.  Lawton  had  not  found 
the  courage  necessary  for  a  complete  explanation. 
He  bent  over  now,  set  the  bag  on  its  bottom  again, 
and  made  partial  answer : 

"This  is  one  of  'em." 

The  heavy  train,  snow-capped  and  sombre,  began 
to  draw  out  of  the  yard.  The  two  Lawtons  stood 
and  silently  watched  it  unfold  its  length — saw  first 
the  broad,  plate-glass  panes  of  the  drawing-room  and 
sleeping  cars,  with  their  luxurious  shadows  and 
glimpses  of  well-groomed  heads  and  costly  stuffs 
behind,  glide  slowly,  sedately  by  ;  then,  more  rap 
idly,  the  closer-set  windows  of  the  yellow,  common 
cars,  through  the  steam  on  which  visions  of  hats  and 
faces  dimly  crowded  ;  and  last,  the  diminishing  rear 
platform,  with  its  solitary  brakeman  vehemently 
whirling  the  horizontal  wheel  of  the  brake — grow 
small,  then  indistinct,  then  vanish  altogether.  A 
sense  of  desertion,  of  having  been  left  behind, 
seemed  to  brood  over  the  old  clapboarded  de"pot 
like  a  cloud,  darkening  the  ashen  masses  of  snow 
round  about  and  chilling  the  very  air. 

The  daughter  looked  once  more  at  her  father. 

"You  are  going  to  carry  his  things!"  she  said, 
with  a  stern,  masterful  inflection  in  her  voice,  and 
with  flashing  eyes. 

"  Hope-to-die,  Jess,  I  tried  as  hard  as  I  could  to 
get  out  of  it — made  all  sorts  of  excuses,"  Lawton 
pleaded,  shrinking  meantime  from  her  gaze,  and 
furtively  but  clumsily  slipping  the  coin  into  his 
pocket.  "  But  you  know  the  kind  of  fellow  Hod 


"And  Yet   You  Knew!"  9 

is — "  he  stammered  here  with  confusion,  and  made 
haste  to  add — "  what  I  mean  is — he — well,  he  just 
wouldn't  take  no  for  an  answer." 

She  went  on  coldly,  as  if  she  had  not  heard  : 
"  You  have  got  his  money — I  saw  it — there  in  your 
hand." 

"  Well,  I  tell  you  what,  Jess,"  the  father  answered, 
with  an  accession  of  boldness,  "  half-dollars  don't 
grow  on  every  bush  up  this  way.  I  ain't  seen  one 
afore  in  a  fortnight.  And  to-morrow's  Thanksgiv 
ing,  you  know — and  then  you've  come  home — and 
what  was  a  fellow  to  do  ?  " 

The  girl  turned,  as  if  it  were  fruitless  to  say  more. 
Then  the  necessity  for  relief  mastered  her:  she 
faced  him  again,  and  ground  the  words  from  be 
tween  her  set  teeth  with  scornful  sadness : 

"  You  take  his  money — and  yet  you  knew  !  "    V 


CHAPTER    II. 

CONFRONTING  THE    ORDEAL. 

JESSICA  LAWTON  stood  on  the  sidewalk  outside 
the  de"pot,  and  waited  for  the  return  of  her  father, 
who  had  gone  in  search  of  the  expressman. 

The  street  up  and  down  which  she  glanced  was 
in  a  sense  familiar  to  her,  for  she  had  been  born 
and  reared  on  a  hillside  road  not  far  away,  and  until 
her  eighteenth  year  had  beheld  no  finer  or  more  im 
portant  place  than  this  Thessaly — which  once  had 
seemed  so  big  and  grand,  and  now,  despite  the  ob 
vious  march  of  "  improvement,"  looked  so  dwarfed 
and  countrified  in  its  overlarge,  misfitting  coat  of 
snow. 

She  found  herself  puzzled  vaguely  by  the  confu 
sion  of  objects  she  remembered  with  things  which 
appeared  not  at  all  to  belong  to  the  scene.  There 
was  the  old  Dearborn  House,  for  example,  on  the 
same  old  corner,  with  its  high  piazza  overhanging 
both  streets,  and  its  seedy  brown  clapboard  sides 
that  had  needed  a  fresh  painting  as  long  as  she  could 
recollect — and  had  not  got  it'  yet.  But  beside  it, 
where  formerly  had  been  a  long,  straggling  line  of 
decrepit  sheds,  was  reared  now  a  tall,  narrow,  flat- 
roofed  brick  building — the  village  fire-engine  house ; 


Confronting  the  Ordeal.  n 

and  through  the  half-open  door,  in  which  a  man  and  a 
bull-dog  stood  surveying  her,  she  could  see  the  brassy 
brightness  of  a  huge  modern  machine  within.  It 
seemed  only  yesterday  that  the  manhood  of  Thessaly 
had  rejoiced  and  perspired  over  the  heavy,  unwieldy 
wheeled  pump  which  was  dragged  about  with  ropes 
and  worked  by  means  of  long  hand-brakes,  with 
twelve  men  on  a  side,  and  a  ducking  from  the  hose 
for  all  shirkers.  And  here  was  a  citified  brick  en 
gine-house,  and  a  "  steamer  "  drawn  by  horses ! 

Everywhere,  as  she  looked,  this  incongruous 
jumbling  of  the  familiar  and  the  novel  forced  itself 
upon  the  girl's  attention.  And  neither  the  old  nor 
the  new  bore  on  its  face  any  welcome  for  her. 

In  a  narrower  and  more  compact  street  than  this 
main  thoroughfare  of  Thessaly,  the  people  in  view 
would  have  constituted  almost  a  crowd.  The  stores 
all  seemed  to  be  doing  a  thriving  business,  particu 
larly  if  those  who  lounged  about  looking  in  the 
windows  might  be  counted  upon  presently  to  buy 
something.  Both  sides  of  the  road  were  lined  with 
rustic  sleighs,  drawn  up  wherever  paths  had  been 
cut  through  the  deep  snow  to  the  sidewalks ;  and 
farmers  in  big  overcoats,  comforters,  and  mittens 
were  visible  by  scores,  spreading  buffalo-robes  over 
their  horses,  or  getting  out  armfuls  of  turkeys  and 
tubs  of  butter  from  the  straw  in  the  bottoms  of  their 
sleds,  or  stamping  with  their  heavy  boots  on  the 
walks  for  warmth,  as  they  discussed  prices  and  the 
relative  badness  of  the  various  snow-blocked  roads 
in  the  vicinity.  Farther  down  the  street  a  load  of 


12  The  Lawton  Girl. 

hay  had  tipped  over  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  and 
the  driver,  an  old  man  with  a  faded  army-overcoat' 
and    long  hair,  was    hurling    loud    imprecations    at 
some  boys  who  had  snowballed  him,  and  who  now, 
from  a  safe  distance,  yelled  back  impolite  rejoinders. 

Among  all  who  passed,  Jessica  caught  sight  of  no 
accustomed  face.  In  a  way,  indeed,  they  were  all 
familiar  enough :  they  were  types  in  feature  and 
voice  and  dress  and  manner  of  the  people  among 
whom  her  whole  earlier  life  had  been  spent.  But 
she  knew  none  of  them — and  was  at  once  glad  of 
this,  and  very  melancholy. 

She  had  done  a  rash  and  daring  thing  in  coming 
back  to  Dearborn  County.  It  had  seemed  the  right 
thing  to  do,  and  she  had  found  the  strength  and 
resolution  to  do  it.  But  there  had  been  many 
moments  of  quaking  trepidation  during  the  long 
railroad  journey  from  Tecumseh  that  day,  and  she 
was  conscious  now,  as  she  looked  about  her,  of  a 
well-nigh  complete  collapse  of  courage.  The  tears 
would  come,  and  she  had  more  than  once  furtively 
to  lift  her  handkerchief  to  her  face. 

It  was  not  a  face  with  which  one,  at  first  glance, 
would  readily  associate  tears.  The  features  were 
regularly,  almost  firmly  cut ;  and  the  eyes — large, 
fine  eyes  though  they  were — had  commonly  a  wide 
awake,  steady,  practical  look,  which  expressed  any 
thing  rather  than  weakness.  The  effect  of  the 
countenance,  as  a  whole,  suggested  an  energetic, 
self-contained  young  woman,  who  knew  her  way 
about,  who  was  likely  to  be  neither  cheated  nor 


Confronting  the  Ordeal.  13 

flattered  out  of  her  rights,  and  who  distinctly 
belonged  to  the  managing  division  of  the  human 
race.  This  conception  of  her  was  aided  by  the 
erect,  independent  carriage  of  her  shoulders,  which 
made  her  seem  taller  than  she  really  was,  and  by 
the  clever  simplicity  of  her  black  tailor-made  jacket 
and  dress,  and  her  round,  shapely,  turban-like  hat. 

But  if  one  looked  closely  into  this  face,  here  in  the 
snowlight  of  the  November  afternoon,  there  would 
be  found  sundry  lines  and  shadows  of  sensibility  and 
of  suffering  which  were  at  war  with  its  general  ex 
pression.  And  these,  when  one  caught  them,  had  an 
air  of  being  new,  and  of  not  yet  having  had  time  to 
lay  definite  hold  upon  the  face  itself.  They  were 
nearer  it  now,  perhaps,  as  the  tears  came,  than  they 
had  often  been  before,  yet  even  now  both  they 
and  the  moisture  glistening  on  the  long  lashes,  ap 
peared  foreign  to  the  calm  immobility  of  the  coun 
tenance.  Tears  did  not  seem  to  belong  there,  nor 
smiles. 

Yet  a  real  smile  did  all  at  once  move  to  softness 
the  compressed  lines  of  her  lips,  and  bring  color  to 
her  cheeks  and  a  pleasant  mellowing  of  glance  into 
her  eyes.  She  had  been  striving  to  occupy  her  all- 
too-introspective  mind  by  reading  the  signs  with 
which  the  house-fronts  were  thickly  covered  ;  and 
here,  on  a  doorway  close  beside  her,  was  one  at  sight 
of  which  her  whole  face  brightened.  And  it  was 
a  charming  face  now — a  face  to  remember — with 
intelligence  and  fine  feeling  and  frank  happiness  in 
every  lineament,  yet  with  the  same  curious  sugges- 


14  The  Lawton  Girl. 

tion,  too,  of  the  smile,  like  the  tears,  being  rare  and 
unfamiliar. 

The  sign    was   a   small   sheet   of  tin,  painted   in 
yellow  letters  on  a  black  ground  : 


REUBEN   TRACY, 

ATTORNEY  AND  COUNSELLOR  AT  LAW, 

Second  Floor. 


"  Oh,  he  is  here,  then  ;  he  has  come  back !  "  she 
said  aloud.  She  repeated,  with  an  air  of  enjoying 
the  sound  of  the  words :  "  He  has  come  back." 

She  walked  up  to  the  sign,  read  it  over  and  over 
again,  and  even  touched  it,  in  a  meditative  way, 
with  the  tip  of  her  gloved  finger.  The  smile  came 
to  her  face  once  more  as  she  murmured  :  "He  will 
know — he  will  make  it  easier  for  me." 

But  even  as  she  spoke  the  sad  look  spread  over 
her  face  again.  She  walked  back  to  the  place  where 
she  had  been  standing,  and  looked  resolutely  away 
from  the  sign — at  the  tipped-over  load  of  hay,  at 
the  engine-house,  at  the  sleighs  passing  to  and  fro — 
through  eyes  dimmed  afresh  with  tears. 

Thus  she  still  stood  when  her  father  returned. 
The  expressman  who  halted  his  bob-sleigh  at  the 
cutting  in  front  of  her,  and  who  sat  holding  the 
reins  while  her  father  piled  her  valise  and  parcels  on 
behind,  looked  her  over  with  a  half-awed,  half-quiz 
zical  glance,  and  seemed  a  long  time  making  up  his 
mind  to  speak.  Finally  he  said  : 


Confronting  the  Ordeal.  15 

"  How  d'do  ?  Want  to  ride  here,  on  the  seat, 
longside  of  me?" 

There  was  an  indefinable  something  in  his  tone, 
and  in  the  grin  that  went  with  it,  which  she  resented 
quickly. 

"  I  had  no  idea  of  riding  at  all,"  she  made  answer. 

Her  father,  who  had  seated  himself  on  a  trunk  in 
the  centre  of  the  sleigh,  interposed.  "  Why,  Jess, 
you  remember  Steve,  don't  you  ?  "  he  asked,  apolo 
getically. 

The  expressman  and  the  girl  looked  briefly  at  one 
another,  and  nodded  in  a  perfunctory  manner. 

Lawton  went  on:  "  He  offered  himself  to  give  us 
a  lift  as  far  as  the  house.  He's  goin'  that  way — 
ain't  you,  Steve  ?" 

The  impulse  was  strong  in  Jessica  to  resist — pre 
cisely  why  she  might  have  found  it  difficult  to  ex 
plain — but  apparently  there  was  no  choice  remaining 
to  her.  "  Very  well,  then,"  she  said,  "  I  will  sit 
beside  you,  father." 

She  stepped  into  the  sleigh  at  this,  and  took  her 
seat  on  the  other  end  of  the  big  trunk.  The  express 
man  gave  a  slap  of  the  lines  and  a  cluck  to  the 
horse,  which  started  briskly  down  the  wide  street, 
the  bell  at  its  collar  giving  forth  a  sustained,  cheery 
tinkle  as  they  sped  through  the  snow. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  think — ain't  this  better'n 
walkin'  ?  "  remarked  Lawton,  after  a  time,  knocking 
his  heels  in  a  satisfied  way  against  the  side  of  the 
trunk. 

"  I  felt   as  if  the  walk  would   do  me   good,"   she 


1 6  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

answered,  simply.  Her  face  was  impassivity  itself, 
as  she  looked  straight  before  her,  over  the  express 
man's  shoulder. 

Ben  Lawton  felt  oppressed  by  the  conviction  that 
his  daughter  was  annoyed.  Perhaps  it  was  because 
he  had  insisted  on  riding — instead  of  saying  that  he 
would  walk  too,  when  she  had  disclosed  her  prefer 
ence.  He  ventured  upon  an  explanation,  stealing 
wistful  glances  at  her  meantime : 

"  You  see,  Jess,  Dave  Rantell's  got  a  turkey-shoot 
on  to-day,  down  at  his  place,  and  I  kind  o'  thought 
I'd  try  my  luck  with  this  here  half-dollar,  'fore  it 
gets  dark.  The  days  are  shortenin'  so,  this  season 
o'  year,  that  I  couldn't  get  there  without  Steve  give 
me  a  lift.  And  if  I  should  get  a  turkey — why,  we'll 
have  a  regular  Thanksgiving  dinner ;  and  with  you 
come  home,  too  !  " 

To  this  she  did  not  trust  herself  to  make  answer, 
but  kept  her  face  rigidly  set,  and  her  eyes  fixed  as 
if  engrossed  in  meditation.  They  had  passed  the 
great  iron-works  on  the  western  outskirts  of  the 
village  now,  and  the  road  leading  to  the  suburb  of 
Burfield  ran  for  a  little  through  almost  open  country. 
The  keener  wind  raised  here  in  resistance  to  the 
rapid  transit  of  the  sleigh — no  doubt  it  was  this 
which  brought  the  deep  flush  to  her  cheeks  and  the 
glistening  moisture  to  her  eyes. 

They  presently  overtook  two  young  men  who 
were  trudging  along  abreast,  each  in  one  of  the 
tracks  made  by  traffic,  and  who  stepped  aside  to 
let  the  sleigh  go  by. 


Confronting  the  Ordeal.  17 

"  Hello,  Hod  ! "  called  out  the  expressman  as  he 
passed.  "  I've  got  your  trunks.  Come  back  for 
good  ?" 

"Hello,  Steve! I  don't  quite  know  yet," 

was  the  reply  which  came  back — the  latter  half  of 'it 
too  late  for  the  expressman's  ears. 

Jessica  had  not  seen  the  pedestrians  until  the 
sleigh  was  close  upon  them  ;  then,  in  the  moment's 
glimpse  of  them  vouchsafed  her,  she  had  recognized 
young  Mr.  Boyce,  and,  in  looking  away  from  him 
with  swift  decision,  had  gazed  full  into  the  eyes  of 
his  companion.  This  other  remembered  her  too,  it 
was  evident,  even  in  that  brief  instant  of  passing, 
for  a  smile  of  greeting  was  in  the  glance  he  returned, 
and  he  lifted  his  hat  as  she  swept  by. 

This  was  Reuben  Tracy,  then  !  Despite  his  beard, 
he  seemed  scarcely  to  have  aged  in  face  during  these 
last  five  years;  but  he  looked  straighter  and  stronger, 
and  his  bearing  had  more  vigor  and  firmness  than 
she  remembered  of  him  in  the  days  when  she  was 
an  irregular  pupil  at  the  little  old  Burfield-road 
school-house,  and  he  was  the  teacher.  She  was  glad 
that  he  looked  so  hale  and  healthful.  And  had  her 
tell-tale  face,  she  wondered,  revealed  as  she  passed 
him  all  the  deep  pleasure  she  felt  at  seeing  him 
again — at  knowing  he  was  near  ?  She  tried  to  recall 
whether  she  had  smiled,  and  could  not  make  sure. 
But  he  had  smiled — of  that  there  was  not  a  doubt ; 
and  he  had  known  her  on  the  instant,  and  had  taken 
off  his  hat,  not  merely  jerked  his  finger  toward  it. 
Ah,  what  delight  there  was  in  these  thoughts ! 


1 8  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

She  turned  to  her  father,  and  lifting  her  voice 
above  the  jingle  of  the  bell,  spoke  with  animation  : 

"  Tell  me  about  the  second  man  we  just  passed — 
Mr.  Tracy.  Has  he  been  in  Thessaly  long,  and  is 
he  doing  a  good  business  ?  "  She  added  hastily,  as  if 
to  forestall  some  possible  misconception  :  "  He  used 
to  be  my  school-teacher,  you  know." 

"  Guess  he's  gettin'  on  all  right,"  replied  Lawton  : 
"  I  hain't  heard  nothin'  to  the  contrary.  He  must 
a'  been  back  from  New  York  along  about  a  year — 
maybe  two."  To  her  great  annoyance  he  shouted 
out  to  the  driver :  "Steve,  how  long's  Rube  Tracy 
been  back  in  Thessaly  ?  You  keep  track  o'  things 
better'n  I  do." 

The  expressman  replied  over  his  shoulder: 
"  Should  say  about  a  year  come  Christmas."  Then, 
after  a  moment's  pause,  he  transferred  the  reins  to 
his  other  hand,  twisted  himself  half  around  on  his 
seat,  and  looked  into  Jessica's  face  with  his  earlier 
and  offensive  expression  of  mingled  familiarity  and 
diffidence.  "  He  appeared  to  remember  you  :  took 
off  his  hat,"  he  said.  There  was  an  unmistakable 
leer  on  his  lank  countenance  as  he  added  : 

"  That  other  fellow  was  Hod  Boyce,  the  Gener 
al's  son,  you  know — just  come  back  from  the  old 
country." 

"  Yes,  I  know ! "  she  made  answer  curtly,  and 
turned  away  from  him. 

During  what  remained  of  the  journey  she  pre 
served  silence,  keeping  her  gaze  steadily  fixed  on 
the  drifted  fields  beyond  the  fence  in  front  of  her 


Confronting  the  Ordeal.  19 

and  thinking  about  these  two  young  men — at  first 
with  infinite  bitterness  and  loathing  of  the  one,  and 
then,  for  a  longer  time,  and  with  a  soft,  half-sad 
dened  pleasure,  of  the  other. 

It  was  passing  strange  that  she  should  find  her 
self  here  at  all — here  in  this  village  which  for  years 
at  a  time  she  had  sworn  never  to  see  again.  But 
when  she  thought  of  it,  it  seemed  still  more  remark 
able  that  at  the  very  outset  she  should  see,  walking 
together,  the  two  men  whom  memory  most  dis 
tinctly  associated  with  her  old  life  here  as  a  girl. 
She  had  supposed  them  both — her  good  and  her  evil 
genius — to  be  far  away ;  in  all  her  inchoate  specula 
tions  about  how  she  should  meet  various  people,  no 
idea  of  encountering  either  of  these  had  risen  in  her 
mind.  Yet  here  they  were — and  walking  together  ! 

Their  conjunction  disturbed  and  vaguely  troubled 
her.  She  tried  over  and  over  again  to  reassure  her 
self  by  saying  that  it  was  a  mere  accident ;  of  course 
they  had  been  acquainted  with  each  other  for  years, 
and  they  had  happened  to  meet,  and  what  more 
natural  than  that  they  should  walk  on  side  by  side  ? 
And  yet  it  somehow  seemed  wrong. 

Reuben  Tracy  was  the  best  man  she  had  ever 
known.  Poor  girl — so  grievous  had  been  her  share 
of  life's  lessons  that  she  really  thought  of  him  as 
the  only  good  man  she  had  ever  known.  In  all  the 
years  of  her  girlhood — unhappy,  wearied,  and  mu 
tinous,  with  squalid  misery  at  home,  and  no  respite 
from  it  possible  outside  which,  looked  back  upon  at 
this  distance,  did  not  seem  equally  coarse  and  repel- 


2O  The  Lawton  Girl 

lent — there  had  been  but  this  solitary  gleam  of  light, 
the  friendship  of  Reuben  Tracy.  Striving  now  to 
recall  the  forms  in  which  this  friendship  had  been 
manifested,  she  was  conscious  that  there  was  not 
much  to  remember.  He  had  simply  impressed  her 
as  a  wise  and  unselfish  friend — that  was  all.  The 
example  of  kindness,  gentleness,  of  patient  industry 
which  he  had  set  before  her  in  the  rude,  bare-walled 
little  school-room,  and  which  she  felt  now  had  made 
a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  her,  had  been  set 
for  all  the  rest  as  well.  If  sometimes  he  had  seemed 
to  like  her  better  than  the  other  girls,  his  prefer 
ence  was  of  a  silent,  delicate,  unexpressed  sort — as 
if  prompted  solely  by  acquaintance  with  her  greater 
need  for  sympathy.  Without  proffers  of  aid,  al 
most  without  words,  he  "had  made  her  comprehend 
that,  if  evil  fell  upon  her,  the  truest  and  most  loyal 
help  and  counsel  in  all  the  world  could  be  had  from 
him  for  the  asking. 

The  evil  had  fallen,  in  one  massed,  cruel,  stun-- 
ning  stroke,  and  she  had  staggered  blindly  away— 
away  anywhere,  anyhow,  to  any  fate.  Almost  her 
Instincts  had  persuaded  her  to  go  to  him  ;  but  he 
was  a  young  man,  only  a  few  years  her  senior — and 
she  had  gone  away  without  seeing  him.  But  she 
had  carried  into  the  melancholy,  bitter  exile  a 
strange  sense  of  gratitude,  if  so  it  may  be  called,  to 
Reuben  Tracy  for  the  compassionate  aid  he  would 
have  extended,  had  he  known  ;  and  she  said  to  her 
self  now,  in  her  heart  of  hearts,  that  it  was  this  good 
feeling  which  had  remained  like  a  leaven  of  hope  in 


Confronting  the  Ordeal.  21 

her  nature,  and  had  made  it  possible  for  her  at  last, 
by  its  mysterious  and  beneficent  workings,  to  come 
out  into  the  open  air  again  and  turn  her  face  toward 
the  sunlight. 

And  he  had  taken  off  his  hat  to  her ! 

The  very  thought  newly  nerved  her  for  the  ordeal 
which  she  had  proposed  to  herself — the  task  of 
bearing,  here  in  the  daily  presence  of  those  among 
whom  she  had  been  reared,  the  burden  of  a  hope- 
lessly  discredited  life. 


CHAPTER  III. 

YOUNG   MR.  BOYCE'S   MEDITATIONS. 

THE  changes  in  Thessaly's  external  appearance 
did  not  particularly  impress  young  Mr.  Horace 
Boyce  as  he  walked  down  the  main  street  in  the  di 
rection  of  his  father's  house.  For  one  thing,  he  had 
been  here  for  a  fortnight  only  a  few  months  before, 
upon  his  return  from  Europe,  and  had  had  pointed 
out  to  him  all  of  novelty  that  his  native  village 
offered.  And  again,  nearly  four  years  of  acquaint 
ance  with  the  chief  capitals  of  the  Old  World  had 
so  dulled  his  vision,  so  to  speak,  that  it  was  no 
longer  alert  to  detect  the  presence  of  new  engine- 
houses  and  brick  stores  in  the  place  of  .earlier  and 
less  imposing  structures.  To  be  accurate,  he  did 
not  think  much  about  Thessaly,  one  way  or  the 
other.  So  long  as  his  walk  led  him  along  the  busier 
part  of  the  thoroughfare,  his  attention  was  fully 
occupied  by  encounters  and  the  exchange  of  greet 
ings  with  old  school-fellows  and  neighbors,  who  all 
seemed  glad  to  see  him  home  again  ;  and  when  he 
had  passed  the  last  store  on  the  street,  and  had  of 
necessity  exchanged  the  sidewalk  for  one  of  the  two 
deep-beaten  tracks  in  the  centre  of  the  drifted  road, 
his  thoughts  were  still  upon  a  more  engrossing  sub* 


Young  Mr.  Boyces  Meditations.  23 

ject  than  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  any  North 
American  town. 

They  were  pleasant  thoughts,  though,  as  any  one 
might  read  in  a  glance  at  his  smooth-shaven,  hand 
some  face,  with  its  satisfied  half  smile  and  its  bold, 
confident  expression  of  eyes.  He  stopped  once  in 
his  rapid  walk  and  stood  for  a  minute  or  two  in  si 
lent  contemplation,  just  before  he  reached  the  open 
stretch  of  country  which  lay  like  a  wedge  between 
the  two  halves  of  the  village.  The  white  surface  in 
front  of  him  was  strewn  here  with  dry  boughs  and 
twigs,  broken  from  the  elms  above  by  the  weight 
of  the  recent  snowfall.  Beyond  the  fence  some  boys 
with  comforters  tied  about  their  ears  were  skating  on 
a  pond  in  the  fields.  Mr.  Boyce  looked  over  these 
to  the  darkened  middle-distance  of  the  wintry  pict 
ure,  where  rose  the  grimy  bulk  and  tall  smoke-belch 
ing  chimneys  of  the  Minster  iron-works.  He  seemed 
to  find  exhilaration  in  his  long,  intent  gaze  at  these 
solid  evidences  of  activity  and  wealth,  for  he  filled 
his  lungs  with  a  deep,  contented  draught  of  the  nip 
ping  air  when  he  finally  turned  and  resumed  his 
walk,  swinging  his  shoulders  and  lightly  tapping  the 
crusted  snowbanks  at  his  side  with  his  stick  as  he 
stepped  briskly  forward. 

The  Minster  iron-works  were  undoubtedly  worth 
thinking  about,  and  all  the  more  so  because  they 
were  not  new.  During  all  the  dozen  or  more  years 
of  their  existence  they  had  never  once  been  out  of 
blast.  At  seasons  of  extreme  depression  in  the 
market,  when  even  Pennsylvania  was  idle  and  the 


24  The  Lawton  Girl. 

poor  smelters  of  St.  Louis  and  Chicago  could  scarcely 
remember  when  they  had  been  last  employed,  these 
chimneys  upon  which  he  had  just  looked  had  never 
ceased  for  a  day  to  hurl  their  black  clouds  into  the 
face  of  the  sky.  They  had  been  built  by  one  of  the 
cleverest  and  most  daring  of  all  the  strong  men 
whom  that  section  had  produced — the  late  Stephen 
Minster.  It  was  he  who  had  seen  in  the  hills  close 
about  the  choicest  combination  of  ores  to  be  found 
in  the  whole  North ;  it  was  he  who  had  brought  in 
the  capital  to  erect  and  operate  the  works,  who  had 
organized  and  controlled  the  enterprise  by  which  a 
direct  road  to  the  coal-fields  was  opened,  and  who, 
in  affording  employment  to  thousands  and  good  in 
vestments  to  scores,  had  not  failed  to  himself  amass 
a  colossal  fortune.  He  had  been  dead  now  nearly 
three  years,  but  the  amount  of  his  wealth,  left  in  its 
entirety  to  his  family,  was  still  a  matter  of  conject 
ure.  Popular  speculation  upon  this  point  had  but  a 
solitary  clew  with  which  to  work.  In  a  contest 
which  arose  a  year  before  his  death,  over  the  control 
of  the  Northern  Union  Telegraph  Company,  he  had 
sent  down  proxies  representing  a  clear  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  shares.  With  this  as  a 
basis  for  calculation,  curious  people  had  arrived  at 
a  shrewd  estimate  of  his  total  fortune  as  ranging 
somewhere  between  two  and  three  millions  of 
dollars. 

Stephen  Minster  had  died  very  suddenly,  and 
had  been  sincerely  mourned  by  a  community  which 
owed  him  nothing  but  good-will,  and  could  remem- 


Young  Mr.  Boyces  Meditations.  25 

her  no  single  lapse  from  honesty  or  kindliness  in  his 
whole  unostentatious,  useful  career.  It  was  true 
that  the  absence  of  public-spirited  bequests  in  his 
will  created  for  the  moment  a  sense  of  disappoint 
ment  ;  but  the  explanation  quickly  set  afoot — that 
he  had  not  foreseen  an  early  death,  and  had  post 
poned  to  declining  years,  which,  alas  !  never  came, 
the  task  of  apportioning  a  moiety  of  his  millions 
among  deserving  charities — was  plausible  enough  to 
be  received  everywhere.  By  virtue  of  a  testament 
executed  two  years  before — immediately  after  the 
not  altogether  edifying  death  of  his  only  son — all 
his  vast  property  devolved  upon  Mrs.  Minster, 
and  her  two  daughters,  Kate  and  Ethel.  Every 
unmarried  man  in  Thessaly — and  perhaps,  with  a 
certain  vague  repining,  here  and  there  one  of  the 
married  men  too — remembered  all  these  facts  each 
time  he  passed  the  home  of  the  Minsters  on  the 
Seminary  road,  and  looked  over  the  low  wall  of 
masonry  at  the  close-trimmed  lawn,  the  costly  foun 
tain,  the  gravelled  carriage-drive,  and  the  great  house 
standing  back  and  aloof  in  stately  seclusion  among 
the  trees  and  the  rose-bushes. 

Most  of  these  facts  were  familiar  as  well  to  Mr. 
Horace  Boyce.  As  he  strode  along,  filliping  the 
snow  with  his  cane  and  humming  to  himself,  he 
mentally  embellished  them  with  certain  deductions 
drawn  from  information  gathered  during  the  journey 
by  rail  from  New  York.  The  Miss  Kate  Minster 
whom  he  had  met  was  the  central  figure  in  his 
meditations,  as  indeed  she  was  the  important  per- 


26  The  Lawton  Girl. 

sonage  in  her  family.  The  mother  had  impressed 
him  as  an  amiable  and  somewhat  limited  woman, 
without  much  force  of  character ;  the  younger 
daughter,  Ethel,  he  remembered  dimly,  as  a  delicate 
and  under-sized  girl  who  was  generally  kept  home 
from  school  by  reason  of  ill-health,  and  it  was  evi 
dent  from  such  remarks  as  the  two  ladies  dropped 
that  she  was  still  something  of  an  invalid.  But  it 
was  clear  that  Miss  Kate  lacked  neither  moral  nor 
bodily  strength. 

He  was  quite  frank  with  himself  in  thinking  that, 
apart  from  all  questions  of  money,  she  was  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  women  he  had  ever  seen.  It 
was  an  added  charm  that  her  beauty  fitted  so  per 
fectly  the  idea  of  great  wealth.  She  might  have 
been  the  daughter  of  the  millions  themselves,  so 
tall  and  self-contained  and  regal  a  creature  was  she, 
with  the  firm,  dark  face  of  her  father  reproduced  in 
feminine  grace  and  delicacy  of  outline  ;  with  a  skin 
as  of  an  Oriental  queen,  softly  luxuriant  in  texture 
and  in  its  melting  of  creamy  and  damask  and  deep 
ening  olive  hues  ;  and  with  large,  richly  brown, 
deep-fringed  eyes  which  looked  proudly  and  steadily 
on  all  the  world,  young  men  included.  These  fine 
orbs  were  her  most  obvious  physical  inheritance 
from  her  father.  The  expression  u  the  Minster 
eyes,"  would  convey  as  distinct  an  impression  to 
the  brain  of  the  average  Thessalian  as  if  one  had 
said  "  the  Minster  iron-works."  The  great  founder 
of  the  millions,  Stephen  Minster,  had  had  them, 
and  they  were  the  notable  feature  of  even  his  im- 


Young  Mr.  Boyce  s  Meditations.  27 

pressive  face.  The  son  who  was  dead,  Stephen 
junior,  had  also  had  them,  as  Horace  now  recalled 
to  mind  ;  but  set  in  his  weak  head  they  had  seemed 
to  lose  significance,  and  had  been,  in  truth,  very 
generally  in  his  latter  years  dimmed  and  opacated 
by  the  effects  of  dissipation.  The  pale,  sweet-faced 
little  Ethel  Minster,  as  he  remembered  her,  had 
them  as  well,  although  with  her  they  were  almost 
hazel  in  color,  and  produced  a  timid,  mournful  effect. 
But  to  no  other  face  in  the  entire  family  gallery  did 
they  seem  to  so  wholly  belong  of  right  as  to  the 
countenance  of  Miss  Kate. 

Young  Mr.  Boyce's  thoughts  wandered  easily 
from  the  image  of  the  heiress  to  the  less  tangible 
question  of  her  disposition,  and,  more  particularly, 
of  her  attitude  toward  him.  There  were  obscurities 
here  over  which  a  less  sanguine  young  man  might 
have  bitten  his  lips.  He  had  ventured  upon  recall 
ing  himself  to  mother  and  daughter  very  soon  after 
the  train  left  New  York,  and  they  had  not  shown 
any  shadow  of  annoyance  when  he  took  a  vacant 
chair  opposite  them  and  began  a  conversation  which 
lasted,  such  as  it  was,  through  all  the  long  journey. 
But  now  that  he  came  to  think  of  it,  his  share  in 
that  conversation  had  been  not  only  the  proverbial 
lion's,  but  more  nearly  that  of  a  whole  zoological 
garden.  Mrs.  Minster  had  not  affected  any  especial 
reserve;  it  was  probable  that  she  was  by  nature  a 
listener  rather  than  a  talker,  for  she  had  asked  him 
numerous  questions  about  himself  and  about  Eu 
rope.  As  for  Miss  Minster,  he  could  scarcely  recall 


28  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

anything  she  had  said,  what  time  she  was  looking 
at  him  instead  of  at  her  book.  And  he  had  not 
always  been  strictly  comfortable  under  this  look. 
There  had  been  nothing  unfriendly  in  it,  it  was 
true,  nor  could  it  occur  to  anybody  to  suspect  in 
it  a  lack  of  comprehension  or  of  interest.  In  fact, 
he  said  to  himself,  it  was  eloquent  with  both.  The 
trouble  was,  as  he  uneasily  attempted  to  define  it, 
that  she  seemed  to  comprehend  too  much.  Still, 
after  all,  he  had  said  nothing  to  which  she  could 
take  the  faintest  exception,  and,  if  she  was  the  in 
telligent  woman  he  took  her  to  be,  there  must  have 
been  a  good  deal  in  his  talk  to  entertain  her. 

Even  a  less  felicitous  phrase-maker  than  Horace 
Boyce  could  have  manufactured  pleasant  small-talk 
out  of  such  experiences  as  his  had  been.  The  only 
son  of  a  well-to-do  and  important  man  in  Thessaly, 
he  had  had  the  further  advantage  of  inheriting  some 
twenty  thousand  dollars  upon  attaining  his  majority, 
and  after  finishing  his  course  at  college  had  betaken 
himself  to  Europe  to  pursue  more  recondite  studies 
there,  both  in  and  out  of  his  chosen  profession  of 
the  law.  The  fact  that  he  had  devoted  most  of  his 
attention  to  the  gleaning  of  knowledge  lying  beyond 
the  technical  pale  of  the  law  did  not  detract  from 
the  interesting  quality  of  his  observations.  Besides 
listening  to  lectures  at  Heidelberg,  he  had  listened 
to  the  orchestra  swaying  in  unison  under  the  baton 
of  Strauss  at  Vienna,  and  to  a  good  many  other 
things  in  Pesth  and  Paris  and  Brussels  and  London, 
a  large  number  of  which  could  with  propriety  be 


Young  Mr.  Boyces  Meditations.  29 

described  in  polite  conversation.  And  he  flattered 
himself  that  he  had  discoursed  upon  these  things 
rather  cleverly,  skirting  delicate  points  with  neat 
ness,  and  bringing  in  effective  little  descriptions  and 
humorous  characterizations  in  quite  a  natural  way. 

Moreover,  he  said  to  himself,  it  had  been  his 
privilege  to  see  America  in  perspective — to  stand 
upon  a  distant  eminence,  as  it  were,  and  look  the 
whole  country  over,  by  and  large,  at  a  glance.  This 
had  enabled  him  on  his  return  to  discover  the  whim 
sical  aspect  of  a  good  many  things  which  the  stay- 
at-home  natives  took  with  all  seriousness.  He  had 
indicated  some  of  these  to  the  two  ladies  with  a 
light  and  amiably  bantering  touch,  and  with  a  con 
sciousness  that  he  was  opening  up  novel  ground  to 
both  his  hearers. 

Still — he  wondered  if  Miss  Minster  had  really 
liked  it.  Could  it  be  possible  that  she  belonged 
to  that  thin-skinned  class  of  Americans  who  can 
not  brook  any  comment  upon  anything  in  or  of 
their  country  that  is  not  wholly  eulogistic — who 
resent  even  the  most  harmless  and  obvious  pleas 
antry  pointed  at  a  cis-Atlantic  institution?  He 
decided  this  promptly  in  the  negative.  He  had  met 
such  people,  but  he  could  not  associate  them  in 
his  mind  with  the  idea  of  great  wealth.  And  Miss 
Minster  was  rich — incredibly  rich.  No  doubt  she 
was  thinking,  even  while  she  listened  to  him,  of  the 
time  when  she  too  should  go  to  Europe,  and  dazzle 
its  golden  youth  with  her  beauty  and  her  millions. 
Now  that  he  thought  of  it,  he  had  seen  much  that 


30  The  Lawton  Girl. 

same  look  before  on  the  face  of  an  American  heir- 
ess,  on  her  return  from  a  London  "  five-o'clock 
tea,"  at  which  she  had  met  an  eligible  marquis. 

Could  it  be  that  her  thoughts  ran,  instead,  upon 
an  eligible  somebody  nearer  home?  He  devoted 
himself  at  this  to  canvassing  the  chances  of  her  fancy 
being  already  fixed.  It  was  of  little  importance 
that  nothing  in  their  conversation  suggested  this, 
because  it  was  a  subject  to  which  they  naturally 
would  not  have  alluded.  Yet  he  recalled  that  Mrs. 
Minster  had  spoken  of  their  great  seclusion  more 
than  once.  He  had  gathered,  moreover,  that  they 
knew  very  few  people  in  New  York  City,  and  that 
they  had  little  acquaintance  with  the  section  of  its 
population  which  is  colloquially  known  as  "  society." 
This  looked  mightily  like  a  clear  field. 

Young  Mr.  Boyce  stopped  to  thrust  his  cane  under 
a  twisted  branch  which  lay  on  the  snow,  and  toss  it 
high  over  the  fence,  when  he  reached  this  stage  of 
his  meditations.  His  squared,  erect  shoulders  took 
on  a  more  buoyant  swing  than  ever  as  he  resumed 
his  walk.  A  clear  field,  indeed  ! 

And  now  as  to  the  problem  of  proceeding  to 
occupy  that  field.  Where  was  there  a  gap  in  the 
wall  ?  Millions  were  not  to  be  approached  and 
gained  by  simple  and  primitive  methods,  as  one 
knocks  apples  off  an  overhanging  bough  with  a  fence- 
rail.  Strategy  and  finesse  of  the  first  order  were 
required.  Without  doubt  there  was  an  elaborate 
system  of  defences  reared  around  this  girl  of  girls. 
Mrs.  Minster's  reference  to  seclusion  might  have 


Young  Mr.  Boyces  Meditations.  31 

itself  been  a  warning  that  they  lived  inside  a  fort, 
and  were  as  ready  to  train  a  gun  on  him  as  OP 
anybody  else.  Battlements  of  this  sort  had  been 
stormed  time  and  time  again,  no  doubt ;  human  his 
tory  was  full  of  such  instances.  But  Mr.  Boyce's 
tastes  were  not  for  violent  or  desperate  adventures. 
To  go  over  a  parapet  with  one's  sword  in  one's 
teeth,  in  deadly  peril  and  tempestuous  triumph, 
might  suit  his  father  the  General :  for  his  own  part, 
it  seemed  more  sagacious  and  indubitably  safer  to 
tunnel  under  the  works,  and  emerge  on  the  inside  at 
the  proper  psychological  moment  to  be  welcomed 
as  a  friend  and  adviser. 

Adviser!  Who  was  their  lawyer?  The  young 
man  cast  up  in  his  mind  the  list  of  Thessaly's  legal 
practitioners,  as  far  as  he  could  remember  them.  It 
seemed  most  probable  that  Benoni  Clarke,  the  ex- 
district-attorney,  would  have  the  Minster  business, 
if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  he  needed  it  less 
than  the  rest  did.  But  Mr.  Clarke  was  getting  old, 
and  was  in  feeble  health  as  well.  Perhaps  he  would 
be  glad  to  have  a  young,  active,  and  able  partner, 
who  had  had  the  advantage  of  European  study.  Or 
it  might  be — who  could  tell  ? — that  the  young  man 
with  the  European  education  could  go  in  on  his  own 
account,  and  by  sheer  weight  of  cleverness,  energy, 
and  superior  social  address  win  over  the  Minster 
business.  What  unlimited  opportunities  such  a  post 
would  afford  him  !  Not  only  would  he  be  the  only 
young  man  in  Thessaly  who  had  been  outside  of  his 
own  country,  the  best  talker,  the  best-informed  man, 


32  The  Lawton  Girl. 

the  best-mannered  man  of  the  place — but  he  would 
be  able  to  exhibit  all  these  excellences  from  the 
favored  vantage-ground  of  an  intimate,  confidential 
relation.  The  very  thought  was  intoxicating. 

Mr.  Horace  Boyce  was  so  pre-occupied  with  these 
pleasing  meditations  that  he  overtook  a  man  walking 
in  the  other  track,  and  had  nearly  passed  him,  before 
something  familiar  in  the  figure  arrested  his  atten 
tion.  He  turned,  and  recognized  an  old  school 
mate  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  years,  and  had  not 
expected  to  find  in  Thessaly. 

"  Why — Reuben  Tracy,  as  I  live  !  "  he  exclaimed, 
cordially.  "  So  you're  back  again,  eh  ?  On  a  visit 
to  your  folks?  " 

The  other  shook  hands  with  him.  "  No,"  he  made 
answer.  "  I've  had  an  office  here  for  nearly  a  year. 
You  are  looking  well.  I'm  glad  to  see  you  again. 
Have  you  come  back  for  good  ?  " 

"Yes.  That's  all  settled,"  replied  Mr.  Horace, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REUBEN      T  RACY. 

THE  two  young  men  walked  along  together,  sep 
arated  by  the  ridge  of  snow  between  the  tracks. 
They  had  never  been  more  than  friendly  acquaint 
ances,  and  they  talked  now  of  indifferent  topics — of 
the  grim  climatic  freak  which  had  turned  late  No 
vember  into  mid-winter,  of  the  results  of  the  recent 
elections,  and  then  of  English  weather  and  politics 
as  contrasted  with  ours.  It  was  a  desultory  enough 
conversation,  for  each  had  been  absorbed  in  his  own 
mind  by  thoughts  a  thousand  leagues  away  from 
snowfalls  and  partisan  strife,  and  the  transition 
back  to  amiable  commonplaces  was  not  easy. 

The  music  of  a  sleigh-bell,  which  for  some  time 
had  been  increasing  in  volume  behind  them,  swelled 
suddenly  into  a  shrill-voiced  warning  close  at  their 
backs,  and  they  stepped  aside  into  the  snow  to  let 
the  conveyance  pass.  It  was  then  that  the  express 
man  called  out  his  cheery  greeting,  and  that  Reu 
ben  lifted  his  hat. 

As  the  sleigh  grew  small  in  the  near  distance, 
Reuben  turned  to  his  companion.  "  I  notice  that 
you  told  him  you  weren't  quite  sure  about  staying 
3 


34  The  Lawton  Girl. 

here  for  good,"  he  remarked.  "  Perhaps  I  was  mis 
taken — I  understood  you  to  say  a  few  minutes  ago 
that  it  was  all  settled." 

Horace  was  not  to  be  embarrassed  by  so  slight  a 
discrepancy  as  this — although  for  the  instant  the 
reappearance  of  Jessica  had  sent  his  wits  tripping — 
and  he  was  ready  with  a  glib  explanation. 

"  What  I  meant  was  that  I  am  quite  settled  in 
my  desire  to  stay  here.  But  of  course  there  is  just 
a  chance  that  there  may  be  no  opening,  and  I 
don't  want  to  prematurely  advertise  what  may  turn 
out  a  failure.  By  the  way,  wasn't  that  that  Lawton 
girl?" 

"  Yes — Ben  Lawton's  oldest  daughter." 

Reuben's  tone  had  a  slow  preciseness  in  it  which 
caused  Horace  to  glance  closely  at  him,  and  won 
der  if  it  were  possible  that  it  masked  some  ulterior 
meaning.  Then  he  reflected  that  Reuben  had  al 
ways  taken  serious  views  of  things,  and  talked  in 
that  grave,  measured  way,  and  that  this  was  prob 
ably  a  mere  mannerism.  So  he  continued,  with  a 
careless  voice : 

"  I  haven't  seen  her  in  years — should  scarcely 
have  known  her.  Isn't  it  a  little  queer,  her  coming 
back?" 

Reuben  Tracy  was  a  big  man,  with  heavy  shoul 
ders,  a  large,  impassive  countenance,  and  an  air 
which  to  the  stranger  suggested  lethargy.  It  was 
his  turn  to  look  at  Horace  now,  and  he  did  so  with 
a  deliberate,  steady  gaze,  to  which  the  wide  space 
between  his  eyes  and  the  total  absence  of  lines  at 


Reuben   Tracy.  35 

the  meeting  of  his  brows  lent  almost  the  effect  of  a 
stare.  When  he  had  finished  this  inspection  of  his 
companion's  face,  he  asked  simply : 

"Why?" 

"  Well,  of  course,  I  have  only  heard  it  from 
others — but  there  seems  to  be  no  question  about 
it — that  she— 

"  That  she  has  been  a  sadly  unfortunate  and 
wretched  girl,"  interposed  Reuben,  finishing  the 
sentence  over  which  the  other  hesitated.  "  No, 
you  are  right.  There  is  no  question  about  that — 
no  question  whatever." 

"  Well,  that  is  why  I  spoke  as  I  did — why  I  am 
surprised  at  seeing  her  here  again.  Weren't  you 
yourself  surprised  ?  " 

"  No,  I  knew  that  she  was  coming.  I  have  a  let 
ter  telling  me  the  train  she  would  arrive  by." 

"Oh!" 

The  two  walked  on  in  silence  for  a  minute  or  two. 
Then  Horace  said,  with  a  fine  assumption  of  good 
feeling  and  honest  regret : 

"  I  spoke  thoughtlessly,  old  fellow  ;  of  course  I 
couldn't  know  that  you  were  interested  in — in  the 
matter.  I  truly  hope  I  didn't  say  anything  to 
wound  your  feelings." 

"  Not  at  all,"  replied  Reuben.  "  How  should 
you  ?  What  you  said  is  what  everybody  will  say — 
must  say.  Besides,  my  feelings  are  of  no  interest 
whatever,  so  far  as  this  affair  is  concerned.  It  is 
her  feelings  that  I  am  thinking  of ;  and  the  more  I 
think — well,  the  truth  is,  I  am  completely  puzzled, 


36  The  Lawton  Girl. 

I  have  never  in  all  my  experience  been  so  wholly  at 
sea." 

Manifestly  Horace  could  do  nothing  at  this  junc 
ture  but  look  his  sympathy.  To  ask  any  question 
might  have  been  to  learn  nothing.  But  his  curiosity 
was  so  great  that  he  almost  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief 
when  Reuben  spoke  again,  even  though  the  query 
he  put  had  its  disconcerting  side : 

"  I  daresay  you  never  knew  much  about  her  be 
fore  she  left  Thessaly  ?  " 

"  I  knew  her  by  sight,  of  course,  just  as  a  village 
boy  knows  everybody.  I  take  it  you  did  know  her. 
I  can  remember  that  she  was  a  pretty  girl." 

If  there  was  an  underlying  hint  in  this  conjunc 
tion  of  sentences,  it  missed  Reuben's  perception 
utterly.  He  replied  in  a  grave  tone : 

"  She  was  in  my  school,  up  at  the  Burfield.  And  if 
you  had  asked  me  in  those  days  to  name  the  best- 
hearted  girl,  the  brightest  girl,  the  one  who  in  all 
the  classes  had  the  making  of  the  best  woman  in 
her,  I  don't  doubt  that  I  should  have  pointed  to 
her.  That  is  what  makes  the  thing  so  inexpressibly 
sad  to  me  now  ;  and,  what  is  more,  I  can't  in  the 
least  see  my  way." 

"  Your  way  to  what  ?  " 

"  Why,  to  helping  her,  of  course.  She  has  under 
taken  something  that  frightens  me  when  I  think  of 
it.  This  is  the  point  :  She  has  made  up  her  mind 
to  come  back  here,  earn  her  own  living  decently, 
face  the  past  out  and  live  it  down  here  among  those 
who  know  that  past  best." 


Reuben   Tracy.  37 

"  That's  a  resolution  that  will  last  about  three 
weeks." 

11  No,  I  think  she  is  determined  enough.  But  I 
fear  that  she  cruelly  underestimates  the  difficulties 
of  her  task.  To  me  it  looks  hopeless,  and  I've 
thought  it  over  pretty  steadily  the  last  few  days." 

"  Pardon  my  asking  you,"  said  Horace,  "but  you 
have  confided  thus  far  in  me — what  the  deuce  have 
you  got  to  do  with  either  her  success  or  her  failure  ?  " 

"  I've  told  you  that  I  was  her  teacher,"  answered 
Reuben,  still  with  the  slow,  grave  voice.  "  That  in 
itself  would  give  me  an  interest  in  her.  But  there 
has  been  a  definite  claim  made  on  me  in  her  behalf. 
You  remember  Seth  Fairchild,  don't  you?" 

"  Perfectly.  He  edits  a  paper  down  in  Tecum- 
seh,  doesn't  he  ?  He  did,  I  know,  when  I  went 
abroad." 

"  Yes.  Well,  his  wife — who  was  his  cousin,  Annie 
Fairchild,  and  who  took  the  Burfield  school  after  I 
left  it  to  study  law — she  happens  to  be  an  angel. 
She  is  the  sort  of  woman  who,  when  you  know  her, 
enables  you  to  understand  all  the  exalted  and  sub 
lime  things  that  have  ever  been  written  about  her 
sex.  Well,  a  year  or  so  after  she  married  Seth 
and  went  to  live  in  Tecumseh,  she  came  to  hear 
about  poor  Jessica  Lawton,  and  her  woman's  heart 
prompted  her  to  hunt  the  girl  up  and  give  her 
a  chance  for  her  life.  I  don't  know  much  about 
what  followed — this  all  happened  a  good  many 
months  ago — but  I  get  a  letter  now  from  Seth, 
telling  me  that  the  girl  is  resolved  to  come  home, 


38  The  Lawton  Girl. 

and  that  his  wife  wants  me  to  do  all  I  can  to  help 
her." 

"  Well,  that's  what  I  call  letting  a  friend  in  for  a 
particularly  nice  thing." 

"Oh,  don't  misunderstand  me,"  said  Reuben; 
"  I  shall  be  only  too  glad  if  I  can  serve  the  poor 
girl.  But  how  to  do  it — that's  what  troubles  me." 

"  Her  project  is  a  crazy  one,  to  begin  with.  I 
wonder  that  sane  people  like  the  Fairchilds  should 
have  encouraged  it." 

"  I  don't  think  they  did.  My  impression  is  that 
they  regarded  it  as  unwise  and  tried  to  dissuade  her 
from  it.  Seth  doesn't  write  as  if  he  thought  she 
would  succeed." 

"  No,  I  shouldn't  say  there  was  much  danger  of 
it.  She  will  be  back  again  in  Tecumseh  before 
Christmas."  After  a  pause  Horace  added,  in  a 
confidential  way:  "It's  none  of  my  business,  old 
fellow  ;  but  if  I  were  you  I'd  be  careful  how  I  acted 
in  this  matter.  You  can't  afford  to  be  mixed  up 
with  her  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  here.  Of  course 
your  motives  are  admirable,  but  you  know  what  an 
overgrown  village  is  for  gossip.  You  won't  be  cred 
ited  with  good  intentions  or  any  disinterestedness, 
believe  me." 

This  seemed  to  be  a  new  view  of  the  situation  to 
Reuben.  He  made  no  immediate  answer,  but  walked 
along  with  his  gaze  bent  on  the  track  before  him 
and  his  hands  behind  his  back.  At  last  he  said, 
with  an  air  of  speaking  to  himself : 

"  But  if  one  does  mean  well  and  is  perfectly  clear 


Reuben   Tracy.  39 

about  it  in  his  own  mind,  how  far  ought  he  to  allow 
his  course  to  be  altered  by  the  possible  misconcep 
tions  of  others?  That  opens  up  a  big  question, 
doesn't  it  ?  " 

"  But  you  have  said  that  you  were  not  clear  about 
it — that  you  were  all  at  sea." 

"  As  to  means,  yes ;  but  not  as  to  motives." 

"  Nobody  but  you  will  make  the  distinction.  And 
you  have  your  practice  to  consider — the  confidence  of 
your  clients.  Fancy  the  effect  it  will  have  on  them 
— your  turning  up  as  the  chief  friend  and  patron  of 
a — of  the  Lawton  girl !  You  can't  afford  it." 

Reuben  looked  at  his  companion  again  with  the 
same  calm,  impassive  gaze.  Then  he  said  slowly: 
"  I  can  see  how  the  matter  presents  itself  to  you.  I 
had  thought  first  of  going  to  the  de"pot  to  meet  her; 
but,  on  consideration,  it  seemed  better  to  wait  and 
have  a  talk  with  her  after  she  had  seen  her  family. 
I  am  going  out  to  their  place  now." 

The  tone  in  which  this  announcement  was  made 
served  to  change  the  topic  of  conversation.  The 
talk  became  general  again,  and  Horace  turned  it 
upon  the  subject  of  the  number  of  lawyers  in  town, 
their  relative  prosperity  and  value,  and  the  local  con 
dition  of  legal  business.  He  found  that  he  was 
right  in  guessing  that  Mr.  Clarke  enjoyed  Thessaly's 
share  of  the  business  arising  from  the  Minster  iron 
works,  and  that  this  share  was  more  important  than 
formerly,  when  all  important  affairs  were  in  the  hands 
of  a  New  York  firm.  He  was  interested,  too,  in 
what  Reuben  Tracy  revealed  about  his  own  practice. 


4O  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"Oh,  I  have  nothing  to  complain  of,"  Reuben 
said,  in  response  to  a  question.  "  It  is  a  good  thing 
to  be  kept  steadily  at  work — good  for  a  man's  mind 
as  well  as  for  his  pocket.  Latterly  I  have  had  almost 
too  much  to  attend  to,  since  the  railroad  business  on 
this  division  was  put  in  my  charge  ;  and  I  grumble 
to  myself  sometimes  over  getting  so  little  spare  time 
for  reading  and  for  other  things  I  should  like  to  at 
tempt.  I  suppose  a  good  many  of  the  young  law 
yers  here  would  call  that  an  ungrateful  frame  of 
mind.  Some  of  them  have  a  pretty  hard  time  of  it, 
I  am  afraid.  Occasionally  I  can  put  some  work  in 
their  way  ;  but  it  isn't  easy,  because  clients  seem  to 
resent  having  their  business  handled  by  unsuccessful 
men.  That  would  be  an  interesting  thing  to  trace, 
wouldn't  it  ?— the  law  of  the  human  mind  which 
prompts  people  to  boost  a  man  as  soon  as  he  has 
shown  that  he  can  climb  without  help,  and  to  pull 
down  those  who  could  climb  well  enough  with  a 
little  assistance." 

"  So  you  think  there  isn't  much  chance  for  still 
another  young  lawyer  to  enter  the  field  here?" 
queried  Horace,  bringing  the  discussion  back  to  con 
crete  matters. 

"Oh,  that's  another  thing,"  replied  Reuben. 
"There  is  no  earthly  reason  why  you  shouldn't  try. 
There  are  too  many  lawyers  here,  it  is  true,  but  then 
I  suppose  there  are  too  many  lawyers  everywhere 
— except  heaven.  A  certain  limited  proportion  of 
them  always  prosper — the  rest  don't.  It  depends 
upon  yourself  which  class  you  will  be  in.  Go  ahead, 


Reuben   Tracy.  41 

and  if  I  can  help  you  in  any  way  I  shall  be  very 
glad." 

"  You're  kind,  I'm  sure.  But,  you  know,  it  won't 
be  as  if  I  came  a  stranger  to  the  place,"  said  Horace. 
"  My  father's  social  connections  will  help  me  a  good 
deal  " — Horace  thought  he  noted  a  certain  incredu 
lous  gesture  by  his  companion  here,  and  wondered 
at  it,  but  went  on — "  and  then  my  having  studied  in 
Europe  ought  to  count.  I  have  another  advantage, 
too,  in  being  on  very  friendly  terms  with  Mrs.  and 
Miss  Minster.  I  rode  up  with  them  from  New  York 
to-day,  and  we  had  a  long  talk.  I  don't  want  any 
thing  said  about  it  yet,  but  it  looks  mightily  as  if 
I  were  to  get  the  whole  law  business  of  the  iron 
works  and  of  their  property  in  general." 

Young  Mr.  Boyce  did  not  wince  or  change  color 
under  the  meditative  gaze  with  which  Reuben  re 
garded  him  upon  hearing  this  ;  but  he  was  conscious 
of  discomfort,  and  he  said  to  himself  that  his  com 
panion's  way  of  staring  like  an  introspective  ox  at 
people  was  unpleasant. 

"That  would  be  a  tremendous  start  for  you," 
remarked  Reuben  at  last.  "  I  hope  you  won't  be 
disappointed  in  it." 

"It  seems  a  tolerably  safe  prospect,"  answered 
Horace,  lightly.  "  You  say  that  you're  over 
worked." 

"  Not  quite  that,  but  I  don't  get  as  much  time 
as  I  should  like  for  outside  matters.  I  want  to  go 
on  the  school  board  here,  for  example — I  see  ever 
so  many  features  of  the  system  which  seem  to  me 


42  TJte  Law  ton  Girl. 

to  be  flaws,  and  which  I  should  like  to  help  remedy 
— but  I  can't  spare  the  time.  And  then  there  is  the 
condition  of  the  poor  people  in  the  quarter  grown 
up  around  the  iron-works  and  the  factories,  and  the 
lack  of  a  good  library,  and  the  saloon  question,  and 
the  way  in  which  the  young  men  and  boys  of  the 
village  spend  their  evenings,  and  so  on.  These  are 
the  things  I  am  really  interested  in  ;  and  instead  of 
them  I  have  to  devote  all  my  energies  to  deeds 
and  mortgages  and  specifications  for  trestle-works. 
That's  what  I  meant." 

"  Why  don't  you  take  in  a  partner  ?  That  would 
relieve  you  of  a  good  deal  of  the  routine." 

"  Do  you  know,  I've  thought  of  that  more  than 
once  lately.  I  daresay  that  if  the  right  sort  of  a 
young  man  had  been  at  hand,  the  idea  would  have 
attracted  me  long  ago.  But,  to  tell  the  truth,  there 
isn't  anybody  in  Thessaly  who  meets  precisely  my 
idea  of  a  partner — whom  I  quite  feel  like  taking  into 
my  office  family,  so  to  speak." 

"  Perhaps  I  may  want  to  talk  with  you  again  on 
this  point,"  said  Horace. 

To  this  Reuben  made  no  reply,  and  the  two 
walked  on  for  a  few  moments  in  silence. 

They  were  approaching  a  big,  ungainly,  shabby- 
looking  structure,  which  presented  a  receding  roof, 
a  row  of  windows  with  small,  old-fashioned  panes 
of  glass,  and  a  broad,  rickety  veranda  sprawling  the 
whole  width  of  its  front,  to  the  highway  on  their 
left.  This  had  once  been  a  rural  wayside  tavern,  but 
now,  by  the  encircling  growth  of  the  village,  it  had 


Reuben   Tracy.  43 

taken  on  a  hybrid  character,  and  managed  to  com 
bine  in  a  very  complete  way  the  coarse  demerits  of  a 
town  saloon  with  the  evil  license  of  a  suburban  dive. 
Its  location  rendered  it  independent  of  most  of  the 
restrictions  which  the  village  authorities  were  able 
to  enforce  in  Thessaly  itself,  and  this  freedom  from 
restraint  attracted  the  dissipated  imagination  of  town 
and  country  alike.  It  was  Dave  Rantell's  place,  and 
being  known  far  and  wide  as  the  most  objectionable 
resort  in  Dearborn  County,  was  in  reality  much 
worse  than  its  reputation. 

The  open  sheds  at  the  side  of  the  tavern  were 
filled  with  horses  and  sleighs,  and  others  were 
ranged  along  at  the  several  posts  by  the  roadside  in 
front — these  latter  including  some  smart  city  cut 
ters,  and  even  a  landau  on  runners.  From  the 
farther  side  of  the  house  came,  at  brief  intervals, 
the  sharp  report  of  rifle-shots,  rising  loud  above  the 
indistinct  murmuring  of  a  crowd's  conversation. 

"  It  must  be  a  turkey-shoot,"  said  Reuben.  "  This 
man  Rantell  has  them  every  year  at  Thanksgiving 
and  Christmas,"  he  added,  as  they  came  in  view  of 
the  scene  beyond  the  tavern.  "  There  !  Have  you 
seen  anything  in  Europe  like  that?"  Let  it  be 
stated  without  delay  that  there  was  no  trace  of 
patriotic  pride  in  his  tone. 

The  wide  gate  of  the  tavern  yard  was  open,  and 
the  path  through  it  had  been  trampled  smooth  by 
many  feet.  In  the  yard  just  beyond  were  clustered 
some  forty  or  fifty  men,  standing  about  in  the  snow, 
and  with  their  backs  to  the  road.  Away  in  the 


44  The  Lawton  Girl. 

distance,  and  to  the  right,  were  visible  two  or  three 
slouching  figures  of  men.  Traversing  laterally  and 
leftward  the  broad,  unbroken  field  of  snow,  the  eye 
caught  a  small,  dark  object  on  the  great  white  sheet  ; 
if  the  vision  was  clear  and  far-sighted,  a  closer  study 
would  reveal  this  to  be  a  bird  standing  alone  in  the 
waste  of  whiteness,  tied  by  the  leg  to  a  stake  near 
by,  and  waiting  to  be  shot  at.  The  attention  of 
every  man  in  the  throng  was  riveted  on  this  remote 
and  solitary  fowl.  There  was  a  deep  hush  for  a 
fraction  of  a  second  after  each  shot.  Then  the  tur 
key  either  hopped  to  one  side,  which  meant  that 
the  bullet  had  gone  whistling  past,  or  sank  to  the 
ground  after  a  brief  wild  fluttering  of  wings.  In 
the  former  case,  another  loaded  rifle  was  handed  out, 
and  suspense  began  again  ;  in  the  latter  event,  there 
ensued  a  short  intermission  devoted  to  beverages 
and  badinage,  the  while  a  boy  started  across  the 
fields  toward  the  throng  with  the  dead  turkey,  and 
the  distant  slouching  figures  busied  themselves  in 
tying  up  a  new  feathered  target. 

"  No,  it  isn't  what  you  would  call  elevating,  is  it  ?  " 
said  Horace,  as  the  two  stood  looking  over  the  fence 
upon  the  crowd.  "  Still,  it  has  its  interest  as  a 
national  product.  I've  seen  dog-fights  and  cock- 
mains  in  England  attended  by  whole  thousands  of 
men,  that  were  ever  so  much  worse  than  this.  If 
you  think  of  it,  this  isn't  particularly  brutal,  as  such 
sports  go." 

"  But  what  puzzles  me  is  that  men  should  like 
such  sports  at  all,"  said  Reuben. 


Reuben   Tracy.  45 

"At  any  rate/' replied  Horace,  "we're  better  off 
in  that  respect  than  the  English  are.  The  massacre 
of  rats  in  a  pit  is  a  thing  that  you  can  get  an  assem 
blage  of  nobility,  and  even  royalty,  for,  over  there. 
Now,  that  isn't  even  relatively  true  here.  Take 
this  turkey-shoot  of  Rantell's,  for  example.  You 
won't  find  any  gentlemen  here ;  that  is,  anybody 
who  sets  up  to  be  a  gentleman  in  either  the  English 
or  the  American  sense  of  the  word." 

As  if  in  ironical  answer,  a  sharp,  strident  voice 
rose  above  the  vague  babble  of  the  throng  inside  the 
yard,  and  its  accents  reached  the  two  young  men 
with  painful  distinctness : 

"  I'll  bet  five  dollars  that  General  Boyce  kills  his 
six  birds  in  ten  shots — bad  cartridges  barred!  " 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE     TURKEY-SHOOT. 

THE  compassionate  Reuben  was  quick  to  feel  the 
humiliation  with  which  this  brawling  announcement 
of  the  General's  presence  must  cover  the  General's 
son.  It  had  been  apparent  to  him  before  that 
Horace  would  have  to  considerably  revise  the  boy 
ish  estimate  of  his  father's  position  and  importance 
which  he  brought  back  with  him  from  Europe.  But 
it  was  cruel  to  have  the  work  of  disillusion  begun  in 
this  rude,  blunt  form.  He  tried  to  soften  the  effect 
of  the  blow. 

"  It  isn't  as  bad  as  all  that,"  he  said,  tacitly  ignor 
ing  what  they  had  just  heard.  "  No  doubt  some 
rough  people  do  come  to  these  gatherings  ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  if  a  man  is  fond  of  shooting,  why, 
don't  you  see,  this  furnishes  him  with  the  best 
kind  of  test  of  his  skill.  Really,  there  is  no  reason 
why  he  shouldn't  come — and — besides — " 

Reuben  was  not  clever  at  saying  things  he  did 
not  wholly  mean,  and  his  good-natured  attempt  to 
gloss  over  the  facts  came  to  an  abrupt  halt  from 
sheer  lack  of  ideas. 

"  I  suppose  I  shall  have  to  learn  to  be  a  Thessa- 
lian  all  over  again,"  said  Horace.  "  If  you  don't 


The  Turkey-Shoot.  47 

mind,   we'll   go    in.     It's    just    as    well    to    see    the 
thing." 

Suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  he  moved  toward 
the  gate.  Reuben  hesitated  for  a  moment,  and  then, 
with  an  "  All  right — for  a  few  minutes  " — followed 
him  into  the  yard.  The  two  young  men  stood  upon 
the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  for  a  time,  and  then,  as 
opportunity  favored,  edged  their  way  through  until 
they  were  a  part  of  the  inner  half-ring  around  a 
table,  upon  which  were  rifles,  cartridges,  cleaning 
rags,  a  bottle  and  some  tumblers.  At  their  feet, 
under  and  about  the  table,  lay  several  piles  of  tur 
keys.  The  largest  of  these  heaps,  containing  some 
dozen  birds,  was,  as  they  were  furtively  informed 
by  a  small  boy,  the  property  of  the  "  General." 

This  gentleman,  who  stood  well  to  the  front  of 
the  table,  might  be  pardoned  for  not  turning  around 
to  note  the  presence  of  new-comers,  since  he  him 
self  had  some  money  wagered  on  his  work.  He 
had  on  the  instant  fired  his  third  shot,  and  stood 
with  the  smoking  gun  lowered,  and  his  eyes  fixed 
on  the  target  in  concentrated  expectancy.  The 
turkey  made  a  movement  and  somebody  called  out 
"hit!"  But  the  General's  keen  vision  told  him 
better.  "  No,  it  was  a  line  shot,"  he  said,  "a  foot 
too  high."  He  kept  his  gaze  still  fixed  on  the  re 
mote  object,  mechanically  taking  the  fresh  gun 
which  was  handed  to  him,  but  not  immediately 
raising  it  to  his  shoulder. 

General  Sylvanus — familiarly  called  "  Vane  " — 
Boyce  was  now  close  upon  sixty,  of  middle  height  and 


48  The  Lawton  Girl. 

a  thick  and  portly  figure,  and  with  perfectly  white, 
close-cropped  hair  and  mustache.  His  face  had  in 
its  day  boasted  both  regular,  well-cut  features  and 
a  clear  complexion.  But  the  skin  was  now  of  one 
uniform  florid  tint,  even  to  the  back  of  his  neck, 
and  the  outlines  of  the  profile  were  blurred  and 
fattened.  His  gray  eyes,  as  they  swept  the  field  of 
snow,  had  still  their  old,  sharp,  commanding  glance, 
but  they  looked  out  from  red  and  puffy  lids. 

Just  as  he  lifted  his  gun,  an  interested  bystander 
professed  to  discover  Horace  for  the  first  time,  and 
called  out  exuberantly  :  "  Why,  hello,  Hod  !  I  say, 
'  Vane,'  here's  your  boy  Hod  !  " 

"  Oh,  here,  fair  play!  "  shouted  some  of  the  Gen 
eral's  backers  ;  "  you  mustn't  try  that  on — spoiling 
his  aim  in  that  way."  Their  solicitude  was  uncalled 
for. 

"  Damn  my  boy  Hod,  and  you  too  ! "  remarked 
the  General  calmly,  raising  his  rifle  with  an  uninter 
rupted  movement,  levelling  it  with  deliberation, 
firing,  and  killing  his  bird. 

Amid  the  hum  of  conversation  which  arose  at 
this,  the  General  turned,  laid  his  gun  down,  and 
stepped  across  the  space  to  where  Horace  and 
Reuben  stood. 

"Well,  my  lad,"  he  said  heartily,  shaking  his  son's 
hand,  "  I'm  glad  to  see  you  back.  I'd  have  been  at 
the  d£pot  to  meet  you,  only  I  had  this  match  on 
with  Blodgett,  and  the  money  was  up.  I  hope  you 
didn't  mind  my  damning  you  just  now — I  daresay 
I  haven't  enough  influence  to  have  it  do  you  much 


The  Turkey-Shoot.  49 

harm — and  it  was  Grigg's  scheme  to  rattle  my  nerve 
just  as  I  was  going  to  shoot.  How  are  you,  any 
way?  How  de  do,  Tracy  ?  What'll  you  both  drink  ? 
This  is  rye  whiskey  here,  but  they'll  bring  out  any 
thing  else  you  want." 

"  I'll  take  a  mouthful  of  this,"  said  Horace  ;  "hold 
on,  not  so  much."  He  poured  back  some  of  the 
generous  portion  which  had  been  given  him,  and 
touched  glasses  with  his  father. 

"You're  sure  you  won't  have  anything,  Tracy?" 
said  the  General.  "  No  ?  You  don't  know  what's 
good  for  you.  Standing  around  in  the  cold  here,  a 
man  needs  something." 

"  But  I'm  not  going  to  stand  around  in  the  cold," 
answered  Reuben  with  a  half-smile.  "  I  must  be 
going  on  in  a  moment  or  two." 

"  Don't  go  yet,"  said  the  General,  cheerily,  as  he 
put  down  his  glass  and  took  up  the  gun.  "  Wait 
and  see  me  shoot  my  score.  I've  got  the  range 
now." 

"You've  got  to  kill  every  bird  but  one,  now, 
General,"  said  one  of  his  friends,  in  admonition. 

"  All  right ;  don't  be  afraid,"  replied  the  champion, 
in  a  confident  tone. 

But  it  turned  out  not  to  be  all  right.  The  seventh 
shot  was  a  miss,  and  so  was  the  tenth,  upon  which, 
as  the  final  and  conclusive  one,  great  interest  hung. 
Some  of  those  who  had  lost  money  by  reason  of 
their  faith  in  the  General  seemed  to  take  it  to  heart, 
but  the  General  himself  displayed  no  sign  of  gloom. 
He  took  another  drink,  and  then  emptied  his 
4 


5O  The  Lawton  Girl. 

pockets  of  all  the  bank-bills  they  contained,  and 
distributed  them  among  his  creditors  with  perfect 
amiability.  There  was  not  enough  money  to  go 
around,  evidently,  for  he  called  out  in  a  pleasant 
voice  to  his  son  : 

"  Come  here  a  minute,  Hod.  Have  you  got  thirty 
dollars  loose  in  your  pocket?  I'm  that  much  short." 
He  pushed  about  the  heap  of  limp  turkeys  on  the 
snow  under  the  table  with  one  foot,  in  amused  con 
templation,  and  added  :  "  These  skinny  wretches 
have  cost  us  about  nine  dollars  apiece.  You  might 
at  least  have  fed  'em  a  trifle  better,  Dave." 

Horace  produced  the  sum  mentioned  and  handed 
it  over  to  his  father  with  a  somewhat  subdued,  not 
to  say  rueful,  air.  He  did  not  quite  like  the  way  in 
which  the  little  word  "  us  "  had  been  used. 

While  the  General  was  light-heartedly  engaged  in 
apportioning  out  his  son's  money,  and  settling  his 
bill,  a  new  man  came  up,  and,  taking  a  rifle  in  his 
hands,  inquired  the  price  of  a  shot.  He  was  told 
that  it  was  ten  cents,  and  to  this  information  was 
added  with  cold  emphasis  the  remark  that  before  he 
fooled  with  the  guns  he  must  put  down  his  money. 

"  Oh,  I've  got  the  coin  fast  enough,"  said  the  new 
comer,  ringing  four  dimes  on  the  table. 

"  Wait  a  moment,"  said  Horace  to  his  father  and 
Reuben,  who  were  about  to  quit  the  yard.  "  Let's 
watch  Ben  Lawton  shoot.  I  might  as  well  see  the 
last  of  my  half-dollar.  He's  had  one  drink  out  of 
it  already." 

Lawton  lifted  the  gun  as  if  he  were  accustomed  to 


The  Turkey-Shoot.  51 

firearms,  and  after  he  had  made  sure  of  his  footing 
on  the  hard-trodden  snow,  took  a  long,  careful  aim, 
and  fired.  It  was  with  evident  sorrow  that  he  saw 
the  snow  fly  a  few  feet  to  one  side  of  the  turkey. 
He  decided  to  have  only  two  shots  more,  and  one 
drink,  and  the  drink  first — a  drink  of  such  full  and 
notable  dimensions  that  Dave  Rantell  was  half- 
tempted  to  intervene  between  the  cup  and  the  lip. 
The  two  shots  which  followed  were  very  good  shots 
indeed — one  of  them  even  seemed  to  have  cut  some 
feathers  into  the  air — but  they  killed  no  turkey. 

Poor  Ben  looked  for  a  long  time  after  his  last 
bullet,  as  if  in  some  vague  hope  that  it  might  have 
paused  on  the  way,  and  would  resume  its  fatal 
course  in  due  season.  Then  he  laid  the  rifle  down 
with  a  deep  sigh,  and  walked  slowly  out,  with  his 
hands  plunged  dejectedly  into  his  trousers  pockets, 
and  his  shoulders  more  rounded  than  ever.  The 
habitual  expression  of  helpless  melancholy  which  his 
meagre,  characterless  visage  wore  was  deepened  now 
to  despair. 

"Well,  Ben,"  said  Horace  to  him,  as  he  shuffled 
past  them,  "  you  were  right.  You  might  just  as  well 
have  hung  around  the  d£pot,  and  let  some  one  else 
carry  my  things.  You've  got  no  more  to  show  for 
it  now  than  if  you  had." 

The  young  man  spoke  in  the  tone  of  easy,  paternal 
banter  which  prosperous  people  find  it  natural  to 
adopt  toward  their  avowedly  weak  and  foolish  breth 
ren,  and  it  did  not  occur  to  Lawton  to  resent  it. 
He  stopped,  and  lifted  his  head  just  high  enough  to 


52  The  Lawton  Girl. 

look  in  a  gloomy  way  at  Horace  and  his  compan 
ions  for  a  moment ;  then  he  dropped  it  again  and 
turned  to  resume  his  course  without  answering.  On 
second  thought  he  halted,  and  without  again  looking 
up,  groaned  out : 

"  There  ain't  another  such  a  darned  worthless  fool 
as  I  be  in  the  whole  darned  county.  I  don't  know 
what  I'll  say  to  her.  I'm  a  good  mind  not  to  go 
home  at  all.  Here  I  was,  figurin'  on  havin'  a  real 
Thanksgiving  dinner  for  her,  to  try  and  make  her 
feel  glad  she'd  come  back  amongst  us  again  ;  and  if 
I'd  saved  my  money  and  fired  all  five  shots,  I'd  a  got 
a  bird,  sure — and  that's  what  makes  me  so  blamed 
mad.  It's  always  my  darned  luck  !  " 

While  he  spoke  a  boy  came  up  to  them,  dragging 
a  hand-sled  upon  which  General  Boyce's  costly  col 
lection  of  poultry  was  piled.  Horace  stopped  the 
lad,  and  took  from  the  top  of  the  heap  two  of  the 
best  of  the  fowls. 

"  Here,  Ben,"  he  said,  "  take  these  home  with  you. 
We've  got  more  than  we  know  what  to  do  with.  We 
should  only  give  them  away  to  people  who  didn't 
need  them." 

Lawton  had  been  moved  almost  to  tears  by  the 
force  of  his  self -depreciatory  emotions.  His  face 
brightened  now  on  the  instant,  as  he  grasped  the  legs 
of  the  turkeys  and  felt  their  weight.  He  looked 
satisfiedly  down  at  their  ruffling  circumference  of 
blue-black  feathers,  and  at  their  pimply  pink  heads 
dragging  sidewise  on  the  snow. 

"  You're  a  regular  brick,  Hod,"  he  said,  with  more 


The  Turkey-Shoot.  53 

animation  than  it  was  his  wont  to  display.  "  They'll 
be  tickled  to  death  down  to  the  house.  I'm  obliged 
to  you,  and  so  she'll  be — " 

He  stopped  short,  weighed  the  birds  again  in  his 
hand  with  a  saddened  air,  and  held  them  out  toward 
Horace.  All  the  joy  had  gone  out  of  his  counte 
nance  and  tone. 

"  No  ;  I'm  much  obliged  to  you,  Hod,  but  I  can't 
take  'em,"  he  said,  with  pathetic  reluctance. 

"  Nonsense  ! "  replied  the  young  man,  curtly. 
"  Don't  make  a  fool  of  yourself  twice  in  the  same 
afternoon.  Of  course  you'll  take  them.  Only  go 
straight  home  with  them,  instead  of  selling  them  for 
drinks." 

Horace  turned  upon  his  heel  as  he  spoke  and  re 
joined  his  father  and  Reuben,  who  had  walked  on 
slowly  ahead.  The  General  had  been  telling  his 
companion  some  funny  story,  and  his  eyes  were  still 
twinkling  with  merriment  as  his  son  came  up,  and  he 
repeated  to  him  the  gist  of  his  humorous  narrative. 

Horace  did  not  seem  to  appreciate  the  joke,  and 
kept  a  serious  face  even  at  the  most  comical  part 
of  the  anecdote.  This  haunting  recurrence  of  the 
Lawton  business,  as  he  termed  it  in  his  thoughts, 
annoyed  him  ;  and  still  more  was  he  disturbed  and 
vexed  by  what  he  had  seen  of  his  father.  During 
his  previous  visit  to  Thessaly  upon  his  return  from 
Europe,  some  months  before,  the  General  had  been 
leading  a  temperate  and  almost  monastic  life  under 
the  combined  restraints  of  rheumatism  and  hay- 
fever,  and  this  present  revelation  of  his  tastes  and 


54  The  Lawton  Girl. 

habits  came  therefore  in  the  nature  of  a  surprise  to 
Horace.  The  latter  was  unable  to  find  any  ele 
ments  of  pleasure  in  this  surprise,  and  scowled  at 
the  snow  accordingly,  instead  of  joining  in  his 
father's  laughter.  Besides,  the  story  was  not  alto 
gether  of  the  kind  which  sits  with  most  dignity  on 
paternal  lips. 

The  General  noted  his  son's  solemnity  and  de 
ferred  to  it.  "  I'm  glad  you  gave  that  poor  devil 
the  turkeys,"  he  said.  "  I  suppose  they're  as  poor 
as  they  make  'em.  Only — what  do  you  think, 
Tracy  ;  as  long  as  I'd  shot  all  the  birds,  I  might 
have  been  consulted,  eh,  about  giving  them  away?" 

The  query  was  put  in  a  jocular  enough  tone,  but 
it  grated  upon  the  young  man's  mood.  "  I  don't 
think  the  turkey  business  is  one  that  either  of  us 
particularly  shines  in, "he  replied,  with  a  snap  in  his 
tone.  "  You  say  that  your  turkeys  cost  you  nine 
dollars  apiece.  Apparently  I  am  by  way  of  paying 
fifteen  dollars  each  for  my  two." 

"'By  way  of — that's  an  English  expression,  isn't 
it?"  put  in  Reuben,  hastily,  to  avert  the  threatened 
domestic  dispute.  "  I've  seen  it  in  novels,  but  I 
never  heard  it  used  before." 

The  talk  was  fortunately  turned  at  this  from  poul 
try  to  philology;  and  the  General,  though  he  took  no 
part  in  the  conversation,  evinced  no  desire  to  return 
to  the  less  pleasant  subject.  Thus  the  three  walked 
on  to  the  corner  where  their  ways  separated.  As 
they  stood  here  for  the  parting  moment,  Reuben 
said  in  an  aside  to  Horace : 


The   Turkey-Shoot.  5  5 

"  That  was  a  kindly  act  of  yours — to  give  Lawton 
the  turkeys.  I  can't  tell  you  how  much  it  pleased 
me.  Those  little  things  show  the  character  of  a 
man.  If  you  like  to  come  down  to  my  office 
Friday,  and  are  still  of  the  same  mind  about  a 
partnership,  we  will  talk  it  over." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THANKSGIVING   AT   THE    MINSTERS'. 

I  I  REMEMBER  having  years  ago  been  introduced  to 
one  of  America's  richest  men,  as  he  sat  on  the  broad 
veranda  of  a  Saratoga  hotel  in  the  full  glare  of  the 
morning  sunlight.  It  is  evident  that  at  such  a 
solemn  moment  I  should  have  been  filled  with 
valuable  and  impressive  reflections  ;  yet,  such  is 
the  perversity  and  wrong-headedness  of  the  human 
mind,  I  could  for  the  life  of  me  evolve  no  weight 
ier  thought  than  this:  "  Here  is  a  man  who  can 
dispose  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  by  a 
nod  of  the  head,  yet  cannot  with  all  this  countless 
wealth  command  a  dye  for  his  whiskers  which  will 
not  turn  violet  in  the  sunshine  !  " 

The  sleek  and  sober-visaged  butler  who  moved, 
noiselessly  about  the  dining-room  of  the  Minster 
household  may  have  had  some  such  passing  vision 
of  the  vanity  of  riches,  as  he  served  what  was  styled 
a  Thanksgiving  dinner.  Vast  as  the  fortune  was,  it 
could  not  surround  that  board  with  grateful  or  light- 
hearted  people  upon  even  this  selected  festal  day. 

The  room  itself  must  have  dampened  any  but  the 
most  indomitably  cheerful  spirits.  It  had  a  sombre 
and  formal  aspect,  to  which  the  tall  oleanders  and 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minster  s\  57 

dwarf  palms  looking  through  the  glass  on  the  con 
servatory  side  lent  only  an  added  sense  of  coldness. 
The  furniture  was  of  dark  oak  and  even  darker 
leather  ;  the  walls  were  panelled  in  two  shades  of 
the  same  serious  tint ;  the  massive,  carved  side 
board  and  the  ponderous  mantel  declined  to  be 
lifted  out  of  their  severe  dignity  by  such  trivial  ac 
cessories  as  silver  and  rare  china  and  vases  of  flow 
ers.  There  were  pictures  in  plenty,  and  costly  lace 
curtains  inside  the  heavy  outer  hangings  at  the  win 
dows,  and  pretty  examples  of  embroidery  here  and 
there  which  would  have  brightened  any  less  reso 
lutely  grave  environment :  in  this  room  they  went 
for  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing. 

Four  women  sat  at  this  Thanksgiving  dinner,  and 
each,  being  in  her  own  heart  conscious  of  distinct 
weariness,  politely  took  it  for  granted  that  the 
others  were  enjoying  their  meal. 

Talk  languished,  or  fitfully  flared  up  around  some 
strictly  uninteresting  subject  with  artificial  fervor 
the  while  the  butler  was  in  the  room.  His  pres-v 
ence  in  the  house  was  in  the  nature  of  an  experi 
ment,  and  Mrs.  Minster  from  time  to  time  eyed 
him  in  a  furtive  way,  and  then  swiftly  turned  her 
glance  aside  on  the  discovery  that  he  was  eying 
her.  Probably  he  was  as  good  as  other  butlers,  she 
reflected;  he  was  undoubtedly  English,  and  he  had 
come  to  her  well  recommended  by  a  friend  in  New 
York.  But  she  was  unaccustomed  to  having  a  man 
servant  in  the  dining-room,  and  it  jarred  upon  her' 
to  call  him  by  his  surname,  which  was  Cozzens,  in- 


58  TJie  Lawton  Girl. 

stead  of  by  the  more  familiar  Daniel  or  Patrick  as 
she  did  the  gardener  and  the  coachman.  Before 
he  came — a  fortnight  or  so  ago — she  had  vaguely 
thought  of  him  as  in  livery ;  but  the  idea  of  seeing 
him  in  anything  but  what  she  called  a  "  dress  suit," 
and  he  termed  "  evening  clothes,"  had  been  defi 
nitely  abandoned.  What  she  chiefly  wished  about 
him  now  was  that  he  would  not  look  at  her  all  the 
time. 

Mrs.  Minster,  being  occupied  in  this  way,  contrib 
uted  very  little  to  what  conversation  there  was  dur 
ing  the  dinner.  It  was  not  her  wont  to  talk  much 
at  any  time.  She  was  perhaps  a  trifle  below  the 
medium  height  of  her  sex,  full-figured  rather  than 
stout,  and  with  a  dark,  capable,  and  altogether  singu 
lar  face,  in  which  the  most  marked  features  were  a 
proud,  thin-lipped  mouth,  which  in  repose  closed 
tight  and  drew  downward  at  the  corners ;  small  black 
eyes,  that  had  an  air  of  seeing  very  cleverly  through 
things ;  and  a  striking  arrangement  of  her  prema 
turely  white  hair,  which  was  brushed  straight  from 
the  forehead  over  a  high  roll.  From  a  more  or  less 
careful  inspection  of  this  face,  even  astute  people 
were  in  the  habit  of  concluding  that  Mrs.  Minster 
was  a  clever  and  haughty  woman.  In  truth,  she 
was  neither.  Her  reserve  was  due  in  part  to  timid 
ity,  in  part  to  lack  of  interest  in  the  matters  which 
seemed  to  concern  those  with  whom  she  was  most 
thrown  into  contact  outside  her  own  house.  Her 
natural  disposition  had  been  the  reverse  of  unkindly, 
but  it  included  an  element  of  suspicion,  which  the 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minsters.  59 

short  and  painful  career  of  her  son,  and  the  burden 
of  responsibility  for  a  great  estate,  had  tended  un 
duly  to  develop.  She  did  not  like  many  of  the  resi' 
dents  of  Thessaly,  yet  it  had  never  occurred  to  her 
to  live  elsewhere.  If  the  idea  had  dawned  in  her 
mind,  she  would  undoubtedly  have  picked  out  as  an 
alternative  her  native  village  on  the  Hudson,  where 
her  Dutch  ancestors  had  lived  from  early  colonial 
times.  The  life  of  a  big  city  had  never  become  even 
intelligible  to  her,  much  less  attractive.  She  went  to 
the  Episcopal  church  regularly,  although  she  neither 
professed  nor  felt  any  particular  devotion  to  religious 
ideals  or  tenets.  She  gave  of  her  substance  gener 
ously,  though  not  profusely,  to  all  properly  organ 
ized  and  certified  charities,  but  did  not  look  about 
for,  or  often  recognize  when  they  came  in  her  way, 
subjects  for  private  benefaction.  She  applied  the 
bulk  of  her  leisure  time  to  the  writing  of  long  and 
perfectly  commonplace  letters  to  female  relatives 
in  various  sections  of  the  Republic.  She  was  pro 
foundly  fond  of  her  daughters,  but  was  rarely  im 
pelled  to  demonstrative  proofs  of  this  affection. 
Very  often  she  grew  tired  of  inaction,  mental  and 
physical ;  but  she  accepted  this  without  murmuring 
as  a  natural  and  proper  result  of  her  condition  in 
life,  much  as  one  accepts  an  uncomfortable  sense  of 
repletion  after  a  dinner.  When  she  did  not  know 
what  else  to  do,  she  ordinarily  took  a  nap. 

It  must  have  been  by  the  law  of  oppositive  attrac 
tion  that  her  chosen  intimate  was  Miss  Tabitha  Wil- 
cox,  the  spare  and  angular  little  lady  who  sat  across 


60  The  Lawton  Girl. 

the  table  from  her,  the  sole  guest  at  the  Thanks 
giving  dinner.  The  most  vigorous  imagination  could 
not  conceive  her  in  the  act  of  dozing  for  so  much  as 
an  instant  during  hours  when  others  kept  awake. 
Vigilant  observation  and  an  unwearying  interest  in 
affairs  were  written  in  every  line  of  her  face  :  you 
could  read  them  in  her  bright,  sharp  eyes ;  in  the 
alert,  almost  anxious  posture  of  her  figure  ;  in  the 
very  conformation  of  the  little  rows  of  iron-gray 
curls,  which  mounted  like  circular  steps  above  each 
ear.  She  was  a  kindly  soul,  was  Miss  Tabitha,  who 
could  not  listen  unmoved  to  any  tale  of  honest 
suffering,  and  who  gave  of  her  limited  income  to 
the  poor  with  more  warmth  than  prudence. 

Her  position  in  Thessaly  was  a  unique  one.  She 
belonged,  undoubtedly,  to  the  first  families,  for  her 
grandfather,  Judge  Abijah  Wilcox,  had  been  one  of 
the  original  settlers,  in  those  halcyon  years  follow 
ing  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  when  the  good  peo 
ple  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  swarmed,  un 
invited,  across  the  Hudson,  and  industriously  divided 
up  among  themselves  the  territorial  patrimony  of 
the  slow  and  lackadaisical  Dutchmen.  Miss  Tabitha 
still  lived  in  the  roomy  old  house  which  the  judge 
had  built;  she  sat  in  one  of  the  most  prominent 
pews  in  the  Episcopal  church,  and  her  prescriptive 
right  to  be  president  of  the  Dorcas  Mite  Society 
had  not  been  questioned  now  these  dozen  years. 
Although  she  was  far  from  being  wealthy,  her  place 
in  the  very  best  and  most  exclusive  society  of  Thes 
saly  was  taken  for  granted  by  everybody.  But  Miss 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minsters .  6 1 

Tabitha  was  herself  not  at  all  exclusive.  She  knew 
most  of  the  people  in  the  village:  only  the  insuper 
able  limitations  of  time  and  space  prevented  her 
knowing  them  all.  And  not  even  these  stern  bar 
riers  availed  to  bound  her  information  concerning 
alike  acquaintances  and  strangers.  There  were  per 
sons  who  mistook  her  eager  desire  to  be  of  service 
in  whatever  was  going  forward  for  meddlesomeness. 
Some  there  were  who  even  resented  her  activity,  and 
thought  of  her  as  a  malevolent  old  gossip.  These 
latter  were  deeply  in  the  wrong.  Miss  Tabitha  loved 
everybody,  and  had  never  consciously  done  injury  to 
any  living  soul.  As  for  gossip,  she  could  no  more 
help  talking  than  the  robin  up  in  the  elm  boughs  of 
a  sunny  April  morning  can  withhold  the  song  that 
is  in  him. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  presence  of  the  butler 
threw  a  gloom  over  the  dinner-party.  It  did  not 
silence  Miss  Tabitha,  but  at  least  she  felt  constrained 
to  discourse  upon  general  and  impersonal  subjects 
while  he  was  in  hearing.  The  two  daughters  of  the 
house,  who  faced  each  other  at  the  ends  of  the  table, 
asked  her  questions  or  offered  comments  at  inter 
vals,  and  once  or  twice  their  mother  spoke.  All 
ate  from  the  plates  that  were  set  before  them,  in  a 
perfunctory  way,  without  evidence  of  appreciation. 
There  was  some  red  wine  in  a  decanter  on  the  table 
—I  fancy  none  of  them  could  have  told  precisely 
what  it  was — and  of  this  Miss  Tabitha  drank  a  little, 
diluted  with  water.  The  two  girls  had  allowed  the 
butler  to  fill  their  glasses  as  well,  and  from  time  to 


62  The  Lawton  Girl. 

time  they  made  motions  as  of  sipping  from  these, 
merely  to  keep  their  guest  in  company.  Mrs.  Min 
ster  had  no  wine-glasses  at  her  plate,  and  drank  ice- 
water.  Every  time  that  anyone  of  the  others  lifted 
the  wine  to  her  lips,  a  common  thought  seemed  to 
flash  through  the  minds  around  the  table  —  the 
memory  of  the  son  and  heir  who  had  died  from 
drink. 

When  the  butler,  with  an  accession  of  impres- 
siveness  in  his  reserved  demeanor,  at  last  handed 
around  plates  containing  each  its  thin  layer  of  pale 
meat,  Ethel  Minster  was  moved  to  put  into  words 
what  all  had  been  feeling : 

"  Mamma,  this  isn't  like  Thanksgiving  at  all ! " 
she  said,  with  the  freedom  of  a  favorite  child  ;  "  it 
was  ever  so  much  nicer  to  have  the  turkey  on  the 
table  where  we  could  all  see  him,  and  pick  out  in 
our  minds  what  part  we  would  especially  like.  To 
have  the  carving  done  outside,  and  only  slices  of 
the  breast  brought  in  to  us — it  is  as  if  we  were  away 
from  home  somewhere,  in  a  hotel  among  strangers." 

Mrs.  Minster,  byway  of  answer,  looked  at  the  but 
ler,  the  glance  being  not  so  much  an  inquiry  as 
a  reference  of  the  matter  to  one  who  was  a  professor 
of  this  particular  sort  of  thing.  Her  own  inclina 
tion  jumped  with  that  of  her  daughter,  but  the 
possession  of  a  butler  entailed  certain  responsibili 
ties,  which  must  be  neither  ignored  nor  evaded. 
Happily  Cozzens's  mind  was  not  wholly  inelastic. 
He  uttered  no  word,  but,  with  a  slight  obeisance 
which  comprehended  mistress  and  daughter  and 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minsters .  63 

guest  in  careful  yet  gracious  gradations  of  signifi 
cance,  went  out,  and  presently  returned  with  a  huge 
dish,  which  he  set  in  front  of  Mrs.  Minster.  He 
brought  the  carving  instruments,  and  dignifiedly 
laid  them  in  their  place,  as  a  chamberlain  might 
invest  a  queen  with  her  sceptre.  Even  when  Miss 
Kate  said,  "  If  we  need  you  any  more,  Cozzens,  we 
will  ring,"  he  betrayed  neither  surprise  nor  elation, 
but  bowed  again  gravely,  and  left  the  room,  closing 
the  door  noiselessly  behind  him. 

"  I  am  sure  he  will  turn  out  a  perfect  jewel,"  said 
Miss  Tabitha.  "  You  were  very  fortunate  to  get 
him." 

"But  there  are  times,"  said  Kate,  "when  one 
likes  to  take  off  one's  rings,  even  if  the  stones  are 
perfection  itself." 

This  guarded  reference  to  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Min 
ster  had  secured  an  admirable  servant  who  was  a 
nuisance  at  small  feminine  dinner-parties  sufficed  to 
dismiss  the  subject.  Miss  Tabitha  assumed  on  the 
moment  a  more  confidential  manner  and  tone : 

"  I  wonder  if  you've  heard,"  she  said,  "  that  young 
Horace  Boyce  has  come  back.  Why,  now  I  think 
of  it,  he  must  have  come  up  in  your  train." 

"  He  was  in  our  car,"  replied  Mrs.  Minster.  "  He 
sat  by  us,  and  talked  all  the  way  up.  I  never  heard 
a  man's  tongue  run  on  so  in  all  my  born  days." 

"  He  takes  that  from  his  grandmother  Beekman," 
explained  Miss  Tabitha,  by  way  of  parenthesis. 
"  She  was  something  dreadful :  talking  '  thirteen  to 
the  dozen  '  doesn't  begin  to'  express  it.  You  don't 


64  The  Lawton  Girl. 

remember  her.  She  went  down  to  New  York  when 
I  was  a  mere  slip  of  a  girl,  to  have  a  set  of  false 
teeth  fitted — they  were  a  novelty  in  those  days — 
and  it  was  winter  time,  and  she  wouldn't  listen  to 
the  dentist's  advice  to  keep  her  mouth  shut,  and 
she  caught  cold,  and  it  turned  into  lockjaw,  and 
that  was  the  last  of  her.  It  was  just  after  her 
daughter  Julia  had  been  married  to  young  Sylvanus 
Boyce.  Dear  me,  how  time  flies  !  I  can  remember 
her  old  bombazine  gown  and  her  black  Spanish 
mits,  and  her  lace  cap  on  one  side  of  her  head,  as 
if  it  were  only  yesterday.  And  here  Julia's  been 
dead  twenty  years  and  more,  and  her  grown-up  son's 
come  home  from  Europe,  and  the  General — 

The  old  maid  stopped  short,  because  her  sentence 
could  not  be  charitably  finished.  "  How  did  you 
like  Horace  ?  "  she  asked,  to  shift  the  subject,  and 
looking  at  Kate  Minster. 

The  tall,  dark  girl  with  the  rich  complexion  and 
the  beautiful,  proud  eyes  glanced  up  at  her  ques 
tioner  impatiently,  as  if  disposed  to  resent  the 
inquiry.  Then  she  seemed  to  reflect  that  no  offence 
could  possibly  have  been  intended,  for  she  answered 
pleasantly  enough  : 

"  He  seemed  an  amiable  sort  of  person  ;  and  I 
should  judge  he  was  clever,  too.  He  always  was  a 
smart  boy — I  think  that  is  the  phrase.  He  talked 
to  mamma  most  of  the  time." 

"How  can  you  say  that,  Kate?  I'm  sure  it  was 
because  you  scarcely  answered  him  at  all,  and  read 
your  book — which  was  not  very  polite." 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minsters  .  65 

"  I  was  afraid  to  venture  upon  anything  more 
than  monosyllables  with  him,"  said  Kate,  "or  I 
should  have  been  ruder  still.  I  should  have  had  to 
tell  him  that  I  did  not  like  Americans  who  made  the 
accident  of  their  having  been  to  Europe  an  excuse 
for  sneering  at  those  who  haven't  been  there,  and 
that  would  have  been  highly  impolite,  wouldn't  it  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  he  sneered,"  replied  Mrs.  Minster. 
"  I  thought  he  tried  to  be  as  affable  and  interesting 
as  he  knew  how.  Pray  what  did  he  say  that  was 
sneering?  " 

"  Oh,  dear  me,  I  don't  in  the  least  remember  what 
he  said.  It  was  his  tone,  I  think,  more  than  any 
special  remark.  He  had  an  air  of  condoling  with 
me  because  he  had  seen  so  many  things  that  I  have 
only  read  about  ;  and  he  patronized  the  car,  and  the 
heating-apparatus,  and  the  conductor,  and  the  poor 
little  black  porter,  and  all  of  us." 

"  He  was  a  pretty  boy.  Does  he  hold  his  own, 
now  he's  grown  up  ?  "  asked  Miss  Tabitha.  "  He 
used  to  favor  the  Boyce  side  a  good  deal." 

"  I  should  say  he  favored  the  Boyce  side  to  the 
exclusion  of  everybody  else's  side,"  said  Kate,  with 
a  little  smile  at  her  own  conceit,  "  particularly  his 
own  individual  section  of  it.  He  is  rather  tall,  with 
light  hair,  light  eyes,  light  mustache,  light  talk, 
light  everything ;  and  he  looks  precisely  like  all  the 
other  young  men  you  see  in  New  York  nowadays, 
with  their  coats  buttoned  in  just  such  a  way,  and 
their  gloves  of  just  such  a  shade,  and  a  scarf  of  just 
such  a  shape  with  the  same  kind  of  pin  in  it,  and 
5 


66  The  Lawton  Girl 

their  hats  laid  sidewise  in  the  rack  so  that  you  can 
observe  that  they  have  a  London  maker's  brand  in 
side.  There  !  you  have  his  portrait  to  a  t.  Do  you 
recognize  it  ?  " 

"  What  will  poor  countrified  Thessaly  ever  do 
with  such  a  metropolitan  model  as  this?"  asked 
Ethel.  "  We  shall  all  be  afraid  to  go  out  in  the 
street,  for  fear  he  should  discover  us  to  be  out  of 
the  fashion." 

"  Oh,  he  is  not  going  to  stay  here,"  said  Mrs. 
Minster.  "  He  told  us  that  he  had  decided  to  enter 
some  law  firm  in  New  York.  It  seems  a  number  of 
very  flattering  openings  have  been  offered  him." 

"  I  happen  to  know,"  put  in  Miss  Tabitha,  "  that 
he  is  going  to  stay  here.  What  is  more,  he  has  as 
good  as  struck  up  a  partnership  with  Reuben  Tracy. 
I  had  it  this  morning  from  a  lady  whose  brother-in- 
law  is  extremely  intimate  with  the  General." 

"  That  is  very  curious,"  mused  Mrs.  Minster. 
"  He  certainly  talked  yesterday  of  settling  in  New 
York,  and  mentioned  the  offers  he  had  had,  and 
his  doubt  as  to  which  to  accept." 

"  Are  you  sure,  mamma,"  commented  Kate,  "  that 
he  wasn't  talking  merely  to  hear  himself  talk?" 

"  I  like  the  looks  of  that  Reuben  Tracy,"  inter 
posed  Ethel.  "  He  always  suggests  the  idea  that 
he  is  the  kind  of  man  you  could  tie  something  to, 
and  come  back  hours  afterward  and  find  it  all  there 
just  as  you  had  left  it." 

The  girl  broke  into  an  amused  laugh  at  the  appear 
ance  of  this  metaphor,  when  she  had  finished  it,  and 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minster s\  67 

the  others  joined  in  her  gayety.  Under  the  influ 
ence  of  this  much-needed  enlivenment,  Miss  Tabitha 
took  another  piece  of  turkey  and  drank  some  of 
her  wine  and  water.  They  began  talking  about 
Tracy. 

"It  will  be  a  good  thing  for  Horace  Boyce,"  said 
Miss  Tabitha.  "  He  couldn't  have  a  steadier  or 
better  partner  for  business.  They  tell  me  that 
Tracy  handles  more  work,  as  it  is,  than  any  other 
two  lawyers  in  town.  He's  a  very  good-hearted 
man  too,  and  charitable,  as  everybody  will  admit 
who  knows  him.  What  a  pity  it  is  that  he  doesn't 
take  an  interest  in  church  affairs,  and  rent  a 
pew,  and  set  an  example  to  young  men  in  that 
way." 

"  On  the  contrary,  I  sometimes  think,  Tabitha," 
said  Miss  Kate,  idly  crumbling  the  bread  on  the 
cloth  before  her,  "  that  it  is  worth  while  to  have 
an  occasional  good  man  or  woman  altogether  out 
side  the  Church.  They  prevent  those  on  the  inside 
from  getting  too  conceited  about  their  own  virtues. 
There  would  be  no  living  with  the  parsons  and  the 
deacons  and  the  rest  if  you  couldn't  say  to  them 
now  and  then  :  '  See,  you  haven't  a  monopoly  of 
goodness.  Here  are  people  just  as  honest  and  gen 
erous  and  straightforward  as  you  are  yourselves, 
who  get  along  without  any  altar  or  ark  whatever.' ' 

Mrs.  Minster  looked  at  her  daughter  with  an  al 
most  imperceptible  lifting  of  the  brows.  Her  com 
ment  had  both  apology  and  mild  reproof  in  it : 

"  To  hear  Kate  talk,  one  would  think  she  was  a 


68  The  Lawton  Girl. 

perfect  atheist.  She  is  always  defending  infidels 
and  such  people.  I  am  sure  I  can't  imagine  where 
she  takes  it  from." 

"  Why,  mamma !  "  protested  the  girl,  "  who  has 
said  anything  about  infidels  ?  We  have  no  earthly 
right  to  brand  people  with  that  word,  simply  be 
cause  we  don't  see  them  going  to  church  as  we  do. 
We  none  of  us  know  this  Mr.  Tracy  to  even  bow 
to  him — at  least  I  don't — and  we  know  no  more 
about  his  religious  opinions  than  we  do  about — what 
shall  I  say? — about  the  man  in  the  moon.  But  I 
have  heard  others  speak  of  him  frequently,  and 
always  with  respect.  I  wasn't  defending  him.  Why 
should  I  ?  I  merely  said  it  was  worth  while  to  keep 
in  mind  that  men  could  be  good  without  renting  a 
pew  in  church." 

"  I  don't  like  to  hear  you  speak  against  religion, 
that  is  all,"  replied  the  mother,  placidly.  "  It  isn't 
—ladylike." 

"  And  if  you  come  to  inquire,"  interposed  Miss 
Tabitha,  speaking  with  great  gentleness,  as  of  one 
amiably  admonishing  impetuous  and  ill-informed 
youth,  "  you  will  generally  find  that  there  is  some 
thing  not  quite  as  it  should  be  about  these  people 
who  are  so  sure  that  they  need  no  help  to  be  good. 
Only  last  evening  Sarah  Cheeseborough  told  me 
something  about  your  Mr.  Tracy — " 

"  My  Mr.  Tracy  !  " 

"  Well,  about  the  Mr.  Tracy,  then,  that  she  saw 
with  her  own  eyes.  I  would  scarcely  have  believed 
it.  It  only  goes  to  show  what  poor  worms  the  best 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minsters  .  69 

of  us  are,  if  we  just  rely  upon  our  own  strength 
alone." 

"  What  was  it  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Minster,  with  a  slight 
show  of  interest. 

Miss  Tabitha  by  way  of  answer  threw  a  meaning 
glance  at  the  two  girls,  and  discreetly  took  a  sip  of 
her  wine  and  water. 

"  Oh,  don't  mind  us,  Tabitha  !  "  said  Kate.  "  I 
am  twenty-three,  and  Ethel  is  nearly  twenty,  and 
we  are  allowed  to  sit  up  at  the  table  quite  as  if  we 
were  grown  people." 

The  sarcasm  was  framed  in  pleasantry,  and  Miss 
Tabitha  took  it  in  smiling  good  part,  with  no  fur 
ther  pretence  of  reservation, 

"  Well,  then,  you  must  know  that  Ben  Lawton — 
he's  a  shiftless  sort  of  coot  who  lives  out  in  the  hol 
low,  and  picks  up  odd  jobs  ;  the  sort  of  people  who 
were  brought  up  on  the  canal,  and  eat  woodchucks 
— Ben  Lawton  has  a  whole  tribe  of  daughters.  Some 
of  them  work  around  among  the  farmers,  and  some 
are  in  the  button  factory,  and  some  are  at  home  do 
ing  nothing  ;  and  the  oldest  of  the  lot,  she  ran  away 
from  here  five  years  ago  or  so,  and  went  to  Tecum- 
seh.  She  was  a  good-looking  girl — she  worked  one 
season  for  my  sister  near  Tyre,  and  I  really  liked  her 
looks — but  she  went  altogether  to  the  dogs,  and,  as  I 
say,  quit  these  parts,  everybody  supposed  for  good. 
But,  lo  and  behold  !  what  must  she  do  but  turn  up 
again  like  a  bad  penny,  after  all  this  time,  and,  now 
I  think  of  it,  come  back  on  the  very  train  you  trav 
elled  by,  yesterday,  too  !  " 


70  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  There  is  nothing  very  remarkable  about  that," 
commented  Kate.  "  So  far  as  I  have  seen,  one 
doesn't  have  to  show  a  certificate  of  character  to 
buy  a  railway  ticket.  The  man  at  the  window  scowls 
upon  the  just  and  the  unjust  with  impartial  inciv 
ility." 

"  Just  wait,"  continued  Miss  Tabitha,  impressively, 
"  wait  till  you  have  heard  all  !  This  girl — Jess 
Lawton,  they  call  her — drove  home  on  the  express- 
sleigh  with  her  father  right  in  broad  daylight.  And 
who  do  you  think  followed  up  there  on  foot — in  plain 
sight,  too — and  went  into  the  house,  and  stayed  there 
a  full  half  hour?  Why,  the  immaculate  Mr.  Tracy! 
Sarah  Cheeseborough  saw  him  pass  the  place,  and 
watched  him  go  into  their  house — you  can  see  across 
lots  from  her  side  windows  to  where  the  Lawtons 
live — and  just  for  curiosity  she  kept  track  of  the 
time.  The  girl  hadn't  been  home  an  hour  before  he 
made  his  appearance,  and  Sarah  vows  she  hasn't 
seen  him  on  that  road  before  in  years.  Now  what 
do  you  think?  " 

"  I  think  Sarah  Cheesborough  might  profitably 
board  up  her  side  windows.  It  would  help  her  to 
concentrate  her  mind  on  her  own  business,"  said 
Kate.  Her  sister  Ethel  carried  this  sentiment  far 
ther  by  adding  :  "  So  do  I !  She  is  a  mean,  med 
dlesome  old  cat.  I've  heard  you  say  so  yourself, 
Tabitha." 

The  two  elder  ladies  took  a  different  view  of  the 
episode,  and  let  it  be  seen  ;  but  Mrs.  Minster  seized 
the  earliest  opportunity  of  changing  the  topic  of 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Minster's.  Ji 

conversation,  and  no  further  mention  was  made  dur 
ing  the  afternoon  of  either  Reuben  Tracy  or  the 
Lawtons. 

The  subject  was,  indeed,  brought  up  later  on,  when 
the  two  girls  were  alone  together  in  the  little  boudoir 
connecting  their  apartments.  Pale-faced  Ethel  sat 
before  the  fire,  dreamily  looking  into  the  coals,  while 
her  sister  stood  behind  her,  brushing  out  and  braid 
ing  for  the  night  the  younger  maiden's  long  blonde 
hair. 

"  Do  you  know,  Kate,"  said  Ethel,  after  a  long 
pause,  "  it  hurt  me  almost  as  if  that  Mr.  Tracy  had 
been  a  friend  of  ours,  when  Tabitha  told  about  him 
and — and  that  woman.  It  is  so  hard  to  have  to  be 
lieve  evil  of  everybody.  You  would  like  to  think 
well  of  some  particular  person  whom  you  have  seen 
— just  as  a  pleasant  fancy  of  the  mind — and  straight 
way  they  come  and  tell  odious  things  about  him. 
Didn't  it  annoy  you  ?  And  did  you  believe  it  ?  " 

Kate  drew  the  ivory  brush  slowly  over  the  flow 
ing,  soft-brown  ringlets  lying  across  her  hand,  again 
and  again,  but  kept  silence  until  Ethel  repeated  her 
latter  question.  Then  she  said,  evasively  : 

"  When  we  get  to  be  old  maids,  we  sha'n't  spend 
our  time  in  collecting  people's  shortcomings,  as  boys 
collect  postage-stamps,  shall  we,  dear?  " 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    PRODIGAL   DAUGHTER'S    WELCOME. 

THE  President  of  the  United  States,  that  year, 
had  publicly  professed  himself  of  the  opinion  that 
"  the  maintenance  of  pacific  relations  with  all  the 
world,  the  fruitful  increase  of  the  earth,  the  rewards 
accruing  to  honest  toil  throughout  the  land,  and  the 
nation's  happy  immunity  from  pestilence,  famine, 
and  disastrous  visitations  of  the  elements,"  deserved 
exceptional  recognition  at  the  hands  of  the  people 
on  the  last  Thursday  in  November.  The  Governor 
of  the  State  went  further,  both  in  rhetorical  exuber 
ance  and  in  his  conception  of  benefits  received,  for 
he  enumerated  "  the  absence  of  calamitous  strife 
between  capital  and  labor,"  "  the  patriotic  spirit 
which  had  dominated  the  toilers  of  the  mine,  the 
forge,  the  factory,  and  the  mill,  in  their  judicious 
efforts  to  unite  and  organize  their  common  inter 
ests,"  and  "  the  wise  and  public-spirited  legislation 
which  in  the  future,  like  a  mighty  bulwark,  would 
protect  the  great  and  all-important  agricultural  com 
munity  from  the  debasing  competition  of  unworthy 
wares  " — as  among  the  other  things  for  which  every 
body  should  be  thankful. 

There  were  many,  no  doubt,  who  were  conscious  of 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  73 

a  kindly  glow  as  they  read  beneath  the  formal  words 
designating  the  holiday,  and  caught  the  pleasant  and 
gracious  significance  of  the  Thanksgiving  itself — 
strange  and  perverted  survival  as  it  is  of  a  gloomy 
and  unthankful  festival.  There  were  others,  per 
haps,  who  smiled  a  little  at  his  Excellency's  shrewd 
effort  to  placate  the  rising  and  hostile  workingmen's 
movement  and  get  credit  from  the  farmers  for  the 
recent  oleomargarine  bill,  and  for  the  rest  took  the 
day  merely  as  a  welcome  breathing  spell,  with  an 
additional  drink  or  two  in  the  forenoon,  and  a  more 
elaborate  dinner  than  was  usual. 

In  the  Lawton  household  they  troubled  their 
heads  neither  about  the  text  and  tricks  of  the  proc 
lamations  nor  the  sweet  and  humane  meaning  of  the 
day.  There  were  much  more  serious  matters  to 
think  of. 

The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  has  long  been 
justly  regarded  as  a  model  of  terse  and  compact  nar 
rative  ;  but  modern  commentators  of  the  analytical 
sort  have  a  quarrel  with  the  abruptness  of  its  end 
ing.  They  would  have  liked  to  learn  what  the  good 
stay-at-home  son  said  and  did  after  his  father  had 
for  a  second  time  explained  the  situation  to  him. 
Did  he,  at  least  outwardly,  agree  that  "  it  was  meet 
that  we  should  make  merry  and  be  glad"?  And  if 
he  consented  to  go  into  the  house,  and  even  to  eat 
some  of  the  fatted  calf,  did  he  do  it  with  a  fine,  large, 
hearty  pretence  of  being  glad  ?  Did  he  deceive  the 
returned  Prodigal,  for  example,  into  believing  in  the 
fraternal  welcome?  Or  did  he  lie  in  wait,  and,  when 


74  The  Lawton  Girl. 

occasion  offered,  quietly,  and  with  a  polite  smile,  rub 
gall  and  vinegar  into  the  wayfarer's  wounds  ?  Alas, 
this  we  can  only  guess. 

Poor  Ben  Lawton  had  been  left  in  no  doubt  as 
to  the  attitude  of  his  family  toward  the  prodigal 
daughter.  A  sharp  note  of  dissent  had  been  raised 
at  the  outset,  on  the  receipt  of  her  letter — a  note  so 
shrill  and  strenuous  that  for  the  moment  it  almost 
scared  him  into  begging  her  not  to  come.  Then  his 
better  nature  asserted  itself,  and  he  contrived  to 
mollify  somewhat  the  wrath  of  his  wife  and  daugh 
ters  by  inventing  a  tortuous  system  of  lies  about 
Jessica's  intentions  and  affairs.  He  first  established 
the  fiction  that  she  meant  only  to  pay  them  a  flying 
visit.  Upon  this  he  built  a  rambling  edifice  of  false 
hood  as  to  her  financial  prosperity,  and  her  desire  to 
do  a  good  deal  toward  helping  the  family.  Lastly, 
as  a  crowning  superstructure  of  deception,  he  fabri 
cated  a  theory  that  she  was  to  bring  with  her  a  lot  of 
trunks  filled  with  costly  and  beautiful  dresses,  with 
citified  bonnets  and  parasols  and  high-heeled  shoes, 
beyond  belief — all  to  be  distributed  among  her  sis 
ters.  Once  well  started,  he  lied  so  luxuriantly  and 
with  such  a  flowing  fancy  about  these  things,  that 
his  daughters  came  to  partially  believe  him — him 
whom  they  had  not  believed  before  since  they 
could  remember — and  prepared  themselves  to  be 
civil  to  their  half-sister. 

There  were  five  of  these  girls — the  offspring  of  a 
second  marriage  Lawton  contracted  a  year  or  so  after 
the  death  of  baby  Jessica's  mother.  The  eldest, 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  75 

Melissa,  was  now  about  twenty,  and  worked  out  at 
the  Fairchild  farm-house  some  four  miles  from 
Thessaly — a  dull,  discontented  young  woman,  with  a 
heavy  yet  furtive  face  and  a  latent  snarl  in  her  voice. 
Lucinda  was  two  years  younger,  and  toiled  in  the 
Scotch-cap  factory  in  the  village.  She  also  was  a 
commonplace  girl,  less  obviously  bad-tempered  than 
Melissa,  but  scarcely  more  engaging  in  manner. 
Next  in  point  of  age  was  Samantha,  who  deserves 
some  notice  by  herself,  and  after  her  came  the  twins, 
Georgiana  and  Arabella,  two  overgrown,  coarse,  gig 
gling  hoydens  of  fifteen,  who  obtained  intermittent 
employment  in  the  button  factory. 

Miss  Samantha,  although  but  seventeen,  had  for 
some  time  been  tacitly  recognized  as  the  natural 
leader  of  the  family.  She  did  no  work  either  in  fac 
tory  or  on  farm,  and  the  local  imagination  did  not  eas 
ily  conceive  a  condition  of  things  in  which  she  could 
find  herself  reduced  to  the  strait  of  manual  labor. 
Her  method,  baldly  stated,  was  to  levy  more  or  less 
reluctant  contributions  upon  whatever  the  rest  of  the 
family  brought  in.  There  was  a  fiction  abroad  that 
Samantha  stayed  at  home  to  help  her  mother.  The 
facts  were  that  she  was  only  visible  at  the  Law- 
ton  domicile  at  meal-times  and  during  inclement 
weather,  and  that  her  mother  was  rather  pleased 
than  otherwise  at  this  being  the  case. 

Samantha  was  of  small  and  slight  figure,  with  a 
shrewd,  prematurely-sapient  face  that  was  interest 
ing  rather  than  pretty,  and  with  an  eye  which,  when 
it  was  not  all  demure  innocence,  twinkled  coldly 


76  The  Lawton  Girl. 

like  that  of  a  rodent  of  prey.  She  had  several 
qualities  of  mind  and  deportment  which  marked 
her  as  distinct  from  the  mass  of  village  girls  ;  that 
which  was  most  noticeable,  perhaps,  was  her  ability 
to  invent  and  say  sharp,  comical,  and  cuttingly  sar 
castic  things  without  herself  laughing  at  them. 
This  was  felt  to  be  a  rare  attainment  indeed  in 
Thessaly,  and  its  possession  gave  her  much  prestige 
among  the  young  people  of  both  sexes,  who  were 
conscious  of  an  insufficient  command  alike  over 
their  tongues  and  their  boisterous  tendencies.  Sa- 
mantha  could  have  counted  her  friends,  in  the  true, 
human  sense  of  the  word,  upon  her  thumbs;  but  of 
admirers  and  toadies  she  swayed  a  regiment.  Her 
own  elder  sisters,  Melissa  and  Lucinda,  alternated 
between  sulky  fear  of  her  and  clumsy  efforts  at 
propitiation  ;  the  junior  twins  had  never  as  yet 
emerged  from  a  plastic  state  of  subordination  akin 
to  reverence.  Samantha's  attitude  toward  them  all 
was  one  of  lofty  yet  observant  criticism,  relieved 
by  lapses  into  half-satirical,  half-jocose  amiability  as 
their  pay-days  approached.  On  infrequent  occa 
sions  she  developed  a  certain  softness  of  demeanor 
toward  her  father,  but  to  her  mother  she  had  been 
uniformly  and  contemptuously  uncivil  for  years. 

Of  this  mother,  the  second  Mrs.  Lawton,  there 
is  little  enough  to  say.  She  was  a  pallid,  ignorant, 
helpless  slattern,  gaunt  of  frame,  narrow  of  forehead, 
and  bowed  and  wrinkled  before  her  time.  Like  her 
husband,  she  came  of  an  ancestry  of  lake  and  canal 
boatmen  ;  and  though  twenty  odd  years  had  passed 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  77 

since  increasing  railroad  competition  forced  her 
parents  to  abandon  their  over-mortgaged  scow  and 
seek  a  living  in  the  farm  country,  and  she  married  the 
young  widower  Ben  Lawton  in  preference  to  follow 
ing  them,  her  notions  of  housekeeping  and  of  exist 
ence  generally  had  never  expanded  beyond  the  limits 
of  a  canal-boat  cabin.  She  rose  at  a  certain  hour, 
maundered  along  wearily  through  such  tasks  of  the 
day  as  forced  themselves  upon  her,  and  got  to  bed 
again  as  early  as  might  be,  inertly  thankful  that  the 
day  was  done.  She  rarely  went  out  upon  the  street, 
and  still  more  rarely  had  any  clothes  fit  to  go  out 
in.  She  had  a  vague  pride  in  her  daughter  Saman- 
tha,  who  seemed  to  her  to  resemble  the  heroines 
of  the  continued  stones  which  she  assiduously  fol 
lowed  in  the  Fireside  Weekly,  and  sometimes  she 
harbored  a  formless  kind  of  theory  that  if  her  baby 
boy  Alonzo  had  lived,  things  would  have  been  differ 
ent  ;  but  her  interest  in  the  rest  of  the  family  was  of 
the  dimmest  and  most  spasmodic  sort.  In  England 
she  would  have  taken  to  drink,  and  been  beaten  for 
it,  and  thus  at  least  extracted  from  life's  pilgrimage 
some  definite  sensations.  As  it  was,  she  lazily  con 
tributed  vile  cooking,  a  foully-kept  house,  and  a 
grotesque  waste  of  the  pittances  which  came  into 
her  hands,  to  the  general  squalor  which  hung  like 
an  atmosphere  over  the  Lawtons. 

The  house  to  which  Jessica  had  come  with  her 
father  the  previous  afternoon  was  to  her  a  strange 
abode.  At  the  time  of  her  flight,  five  years  before, 
the  family  had  lived  on  a  cross-road  some  miles 


78  The  Lawton  Girl. 

away ;  at  present  they  were  encamped,  so  to  speak, 
in  an  old  and  battered  structure  which  had  been  a 
country  house  in  its  time,  but  was  now  in  the  centre 
of  a  new  part  of  Thessaly  built  up  since  war.  The 
building,  with  its  dingy  appearance  and  poverty- 
stricken  character,  was  an  eyesore  to  the  neighbor 
hood,  and  everybody  looked  hopefully  forward  to 
the  day  when  the  hollow  in  which  it  stood  should 
be  filled  up,  and  the  house  and  its  inhabitants  cleared 
away  out  of  sight. 

Jessica  upon  her  arrival  had  been  greeted  with 
constrained  coolness  by  her  stepmother,  who  did 
not  even  offer  to  kiss  her,  but  shook  hands  limply 
instead,  and  had  been  ushered  up  to  her  room  by 
her  father.  It  was  a  low  and  sprawling  chamber, 
with  three  sides  plastered,  and  the  fourth  presenting 
a  time-worn  surface  of  naked  lathing.  In  it  were  a 
bed,  an  old  chest  of  drawers,  a  wooden  chair,  and 
a  square  piece  of  rag  carpet  just  large  enough  to 
emphasize  the  bareness  of  the  surrounding  floor. 
This  was  the  company  bedroom  ;  and  after  Ben  had 
brought  up  all  her  belongings  and  set  them  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed,  and  tiptoed  his  way  down-stairs 
again,  Jessica  threw  herself  into  the  chair  in  the 
centre  of  its  cold  desolation,  and  wept  vehemently. 

There  came  after  a  time,  while  she  still  sat  sob 
bing  in  solitude,  a  soft  rap  at  her  door.  When  it  was 
repeated,  a  moment  later,  she  hastily  attempted  to 
dry  her  eyes,  and  answered,  "Come  in."  Then  the 
door  opened,  and  the  figure  of  Samantha  appeared. 
She  was  smartly  dressed,  and  she  had  a  half-smile 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  79 

on  her  face.  She  advanced  readily  toward  the 
chair. 

"  Don't  you  know  me?"  she  said,  as  Jessica  rose 
and  looked  at  her  doubtfully  in  the  fading  light. 
"  I'm  Samantha.  Of  course,  I've  grown  a  good 
deal  ;  but  Lord !  I'd  have  known  you  anywhere. 
I'm  glad  to  see  you." 

Her  tone  betrayed  no  extravagance  of  heated  en- 
thusiasm,  but  still  it  was  a  welcome  in  its  way;  and 
as  the  two  girls  kissed  each  other,  Jessica  choked 
down  the  last  of  her  sobs,  and  was  even  able  to 
smile  a  little. 

"  Yes,  I  think  I  should  have  known  you,"  she  re 
plied.  "  Oh,  now  I  look  at  you,  of  course  I  should. 
Yes,  you've  grown  into  a  fine  girl.  I've  thought  of 
you  very,  very  often." 

"  I'll  bet  not  half  as  often  as  I've  thought  of  you," 
Samantha  made  answer,  cheerfully.  "  You've  been 
living  in  a  big  city,  where  there's  plenty  to  take  up 
your  time  ;  but  it  gets  all-fired  slowdown  here  some 
times,  and  then  there's  nothing  to  do  but  to  envy 
them  that's  been  able  to  get  out." 

Samantha  had  been  moving  the  small  pieces  of 
luggage  at  the  foot  of  the  bed  with  her  feet  as  she 
spoke.  With  her  eyes  still  on  them  she  asked,  in 
a  casual  way : 

"Father  gone  for  the  rest  of  your  things?  It's 
like  him  to  make  two  jobs  of  it." 

"This  is  all  I  have  brought;  there  is  nothing 
more,"  said  Jessica. 

"  What!" 


8o  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Samantha  was  eying  her  sister  with  open-mouthed 
incredulity.  She  stammered  forth,  after  a  prolonged 
pause  of  mental  confusion  : 

"You  mean  to  say  you  ain't  brought  any  swell 
dresses,  or  fancy  bonnets,  or  silk  wrappers,  or  seal 
skins,  or — or  anything?  Why,  dad  swore  you  was 
bringing  whole  loads  of  that  sort  of  truck  with 
you  !  "  She  added,  as  if  in  angry  quest  for  consola 
tion  :  "  Well,  there's  one  comfort,  he  always  was  a 
liar!" 

"  I'm  sorry  if  you're  disappointed,"  said  Jessica, 
stiffly;  "  but  this  is  all  I've  brought,  and  I  can't  help 
it." 

"  But  you  must  have  had  no  end  of  swell  things," 
retorted  the  younger  girl.  "  It  stands  to  reason  you 
must.  I  know  that  much.  And  what  have  you 
done  with  'em?"  She  broke  out  in  loud  satire: 
"  Oh,  yes  !  A  precious  lot  you  thought  about  me 
and  the  rest  of  us  !  I  daresay  it  kept  you  awake 
nights,  thinking  about  us  so  much  !" 

Jessica  gazed  in  painful  astonishment  at  this 
stripling  girl,  who  had  regarded  her  melancholy 
home-coming  merely  in  the  light  of  a  chance  to 
enjoy  some  cast-off  finery.  All  the  answers  that 
came  into  her  head  were  too  bitter  and  disagreeable. 
She  did  not  trust  herself  to  reply,  but,  still  wear 
ing  her  hat  and  jacket,  walked  to  the  window  and 
looked  out  down  the  snowy  road.  The  impulse 
was  strong  within  her  to  leave  the  house  on  the 
instant. 

Samantha   had    gone    away,    slamming   the    doof 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  81 

viciously  behind  her,  and  Jessica  stood  for  a  long 
time  at  the  window,  her  mind  revolving  in  irregular 
and  violent  sequence  a  score  of  conflicting  plans  and 
passionate  notions.  There  were  moments  in  this 
gloomy  struggle  of  thought  when  she  was  tempted 
to  throw  everything  to  the  winds — her  loyalty  to 
pure-souled  Annie  Fairchild,  her  own  pledges  to 
herself,  her  hopes  and  resolves  for  the  future,  every 
thing — and  not  try  any  more.  And  when  she  had 
put  these  evil  promptings  behind  her,  that  which 
remained  was  only  less  sinister. 

As  she  stood  thus,  frowning  down  through  the 
unwashed  panes  at  the  white,  cheerless  prospect, 
and  tearing  her  heart  in  the  tumultuous  revery  of  re 
volt,  the  form  of  a  man  advancing  up  the  road  came 
suddenly  under  her  view.  He  stopped  when  he  was 
in  front  of  the  Lawton  house,  and  looked  inquiringly 
about  him.  The  glance  which  he  directed  upwards 
fell  full  upon  her  at  the  window.  The  recognition 
was  mutual,  and  he  turned  abruptly  from  the  road 
and  came  toward  the  house.  Jessica  hurriedly  took 
off  her  hat  and  cloak.  Reuben  Tracy  had  come  to 
see  her ! 

It  was  her  stepmother  who  climbed  the  stairs  to 
notify  her,  looking  more  lank  and  slatternly  than 
ever,  holding  the  bedroom  door  wide  open,  and  say 
ing  sourly:  " There's  a  man  down-stairs  to  see  you 
already,"  as  if  the  visit  were  an  offence,  and  Jessica 
could  not  pretend  to  be  surprised.  "  Yes,  I  saw 
him,"  she  answered,  and  hurried  past  Mrs.  Lawton, 
and  down  to  the  gaunt,  dingy  front  room,  with  its 
6 


82  The  Lawton  Girl. 

bare  walls,  scant  furniture,  and  stoveless  discomfort, 
which  not  even  Samantha  dared  call  a  parlor. 

She  could  remember  afterward  that  Reuben  stood 
waiting  for  her  with  his  hat  in  his  left  hand,  and 
that  he  had  taken  the  glove  from  his  right  to  shake 
hands  with  her ;  and  this  she  recalled  more  dis 
tinctly  than  anything  else.  He  had  greeted  her 
with  grave  kindness,  had  mentioned  receiving  no 
tice  from  the  Fairchilds  of  her  coming,  and  had  said 
that  of  course  whatever  he  could  do  to  help  her  he 
desired  to  do.  Then  there  had  been  a  pause,  dur 
ing  which  she  vaguely  wavered  between  a  wish  that 
he  had  not  come,  and  a  wild,  childish  longing  to  hide 
her  flushed  face  against  his  overcoat,  and  weep  out 
her  misery.  What  she  did  do  was  to  point  to  a 
chair,  and  say,  "  Won't  you  take  a  seat?  " 

"  It  is  very  kind  of  you  to  come,"  she  went  on, 
"  but — "  She  broke  off  suddenly  and  looked  away 
from  him,  and  through  the  window  at  the  snow-banks 
outside.  "  How  early  the  winter  has  closed  in,"  she 
added,  with  nervous  inconsequence. 

Reuben  did  not  even  glance  out  at  the  snow. 
"  I'm  bound  to  say  that  it  isn't  very  clear  to  me 
what  use  I  can  be  to  you,"  he  said.  "Of  course, 
I'm  all  in  the  dark  as  to  what  you  intend  to  do. 
Mr.  Fairchild  did  not  mention  that  you  had  any 
definite  plans." 

"  I  had  thought  some  of  starting  a  milliner's  shop, 
of  course  very  small,  by  myself.  You  know  I  have 
been  working  in  one  for  some  months  at  Tecumseh, 
ever  since  Mrs.  Fairchild — ever  since  she — " 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  83 

The  girl  did  not  finish  the  sentence,  for  Reuben 
nodded  gravely,  as  if  he  understood,  and  that  seemed 
to  be  all  that  was  needed. 

"That  might  do,"  he  said,  after  a  moment's 
thought,  and  speaking  even  more  deliberately  than 
usual.  "  I  suppose  I  ought  to  tell  you  this  doesn't 
seem  to  me  a  specially  wise  thing,  your  coming  back 
here.  Don't  misunderstand  me ;  I  wouldn't  say 
anything  to  discourage  you,  for  the  world.  And 
since  you  have  come,  it  wasn't  of  much  use,  per 
haps,  to  say  that.  Still,  I  wanted  to  be  frank  with 
you,  and  I  don't  understand  why  you  did  come.  It 
doesn't  appear  that  the  Fairchilds  thought  it  was 
wise,  either." 

"  She  did,"  answered  Jessica,  quickly,  "  because 
she  understood  what  I  meant — what  I  had  in  mind 
to  do  when  I  got  here.  But  I'm  sure  he  laughed  at 
it  when  she  explained  it  to  him  ;  she  didn't  say  so, 
but  I  know  he  did.  He  is  a  man,  and  men  don't 
understand." 

Reuben  smiled  a  little,  but  still  compassionately. 
"Then  perhaps  I  would  better  give  it  up  in  advance, 
without  having  it  explained  at  all,"  he  said. 

"  No  ;  when  I  saw  your  name  on  the  sign,  down 
on  Main  Street,  this  afternoon,  I  knew  that  you 
would  see  what  I  meant.  I  felt  sure  you  would : 
you  are  different  from  the  others.  You  were  kind 
to  me  when  I  was  a  girl,  when  nobody  else  was. 
You  know  the  miserable  childhood  I  had,  and  how 
everybody  was  against  me — all  but  you." 

Jessica  had  begun  calmly  enough,  but  she  finished 


84  The  Lawton  Girl. 

with  something  very  like  a  sob,  and,  rising  abruptly, 
went  to  the  window. 

Reuben  sat  still,  thinking  over  his  reply.  The 
suggestion  that  he  differed  from  the  general  run  of 
men  was  not  precisely  new  to  his  mind,  but  it  had 
never  been  put  to  him  in  this  form  before,  and  he 
was  at  a  loss  to  see  its  exact  bearings.  Perhaps, 
too,  men  are  more  nearly  alike  in  the  presence  of  a 
tearful  young  woman  than  under  most  other  condi 
tions.  At  all  events,  it  took  him  a  long  time  to 
resolve  his  answer — until,  in  fact,  the  silence  had 
grown  awkward. 

"  I'm  glad  you  have  a  pleasant  recollection  of  me," 
he  said  at  last.  "  I  remember  you  very  well,  and  I 
was  very  sorry  when  you  left  the  school."  He  had 
touched  the  painful  subject  rather  bluntly,  but  she 
did  not  turn  or  stir  from  her  post  near  the  window, 
and  he  forced  himself  forward.  "  I  was  truly  much 
grieved  when  I  heard  of  it,  and  I  wished  that  I 
could  have  talked  with  you,  or  could  have  known 
the  circumstances  in  time,  or — that  is  to  say — that  I 
could  have  helped  you.  Nothing  in  all  my  teacher 
experience  pained  me  more.  I — " 

"  Don't  let  us  talk  of  it,"  she  broke  in.  Then  she 
turned  and  came  close  beside  him,  and  lifted  her 
hand  as  if  to  place  it  on  his  shoulder  by  a  frank 
gesture  of  friendship.  The  hand  paused  in  mid-air, 
and  then  sank  to  her  side.  "  I  know  you  were 
always  as  good  as  good  could  be.  You  don't  need 
to  tell  me  that." 

"  And   I   wasn't  telling  you  that,  I   hope,"  he  re- 


The  Prodigal  Daughter  s   Welcome.  85 

joined,  speaking  more  freely  now.  "  But  you  have 
never  answered  my  question.  What  is  it  that  Seth 
Fairchild  failed  to  understand,  yet  which  you  are 
sure  I  will  comprehend?  Perhaps  it  is  a  part  of 
your  estimate  of  me  that  I  should  see  without  being 
told  ;  but  I  don't." 

"My  reason  for  coming  back?  I  hardly  know 
how  to  explain  it  to  you." 

Reuben  made  no  comment  upon  this,  and  after  a 
moment  she  went  on  : 

"  It  sounds  unlikely  and  self-conceited,  but  for 
months  back  I  have  been  full  of  the  idea.  It  was 
her  talk  that  gave  me  the  notion.  I  want  to  be  a 
friend  to  other  girls  placed  as  I  was  when  I  went  to 
your  school,  with  miserable  homes  and  miserable 
company,  and  hating  the  whole  thing  as  I  hated  it, 
and  aching  to  get  away  from  it,  no  matter  how  ;  and 
I  want  to  try  and  keep  them  from  the  pitch-hole  I 
fell  into.  That's  what  I  want — only  I  can't  explain 
it  to  you  as  I  could  to  her  ;  and  you  think  it's  silly, 
don't  you  ?  And  I — begin  to  think — so — myself." 

Reuben  had  risen  now  and  stood  beside  her,  and 
put  his  hand  lightly  on  her  shoulder  as  she  finished 
with  this  doleful  confession.  He  spoke  with  grave 
softness  : 

"  No,  not  silly :  it  seems  to  me  a  very  notable  kind 
of  wisdom.  I  had  been  thinking  only  of  you,  and 
that  you  could  live  more  comfortably  and  happily 
elsewhere.  But  it  seems  that  you  were  thinking  of 
matters  much  greater  than  your  own.  And  that 
surprises  me,  and  pleases  me,  and  makes  me  ashamed 


86  The  Lawton  Girl. 

of  my  own  view.  Think  you  silly?  My  dear  child, 
I  think  you  are  superb.  Only  " — he  spoke  more 
slowly,  and  in  a  less  confident  tone — "  unfortunately, 
though  it  is  wisdom  to  do  the  right  thing,  it  doesn't 
always  follow  that  it  is  easy,  or  successful  for  that 
matter.  You  will  need  to  be  very  strong,  in  order 
to  stand  up  straight  under  the  big  task  you  have 
undertaken — very  strong  and  resolute  indeed." 

The  touch  of  his  hand  upon  her  shoulder  had  been 
more  to  Jessica  than  his  words,  the  line  of  which,  in 
truth,  she  had  not  clearly  followed.  And  when  he 
ended  with  his  exhortation  to  robust  bravery,  she  was 
conscious  of  feeling  weaker  than  for  months  before. 
The  woman's  nature  that  was  in  her  softened  under 
the  gentle  pressure  of  that  strong  hand,  and  all  the 
nameless  feminine  yearnings  for  wardenship  and 
shelter  from  life's  battle  took  voice  and  pleaded  in 
her  heart.  Ah,  yes  !  he  spoke  of  her  being  strong, 
and  the  very  sound  of  his  voice  unnerved  her.  She 
could  not  think  ;  there  was  no  answer  to  be  made  to 
his  words,  for  she  had  scarcely  heard  them.  No  re 
ply  of  any  kind  would  come  to  her  lips.  In  place  of 
a  mind,  she  seemed  to  have  only  a  single  sense — 
vast,  overpowering,  glorious — and  that  was  of  his 
hand  upon  her  shoulder.  And  enwrapped,  swal 
lowed  up  in  this  sense,  she  stood  silent. 

Then  lo !  the  hand  was  gone,  and  with  a  start  her 
wits  came  back.  The  lawyer  was  buttoning  his  over 
coat,  and  saying  that  he  must  be  going. 

She  shook  hands  with  him  mechanically,  in  con 
fused  apprehension  lest  she  should  think  of  nothing 


The  Prodigal  Daughter's   Welcome.  87 

more  to  say  to  him  before  he  departed.  She  fol 
lowed  him  to  the  hall,  and  opened  the  front  door  for 
him.  On  the  threshold  the  words  she  wanted  came 
to  her. 

"  I  will  try  to  be  strong,"  she  said,  "  and  I  thank 
you  a  thousand  times  for  coming." 

"  Now,  you  will  let  me  help  you  ;  you  will  come 
to  me  freely,  won't  you?"  Reuben  said  as  he  lifted 
his  hat. 

"  Good-by,"  answered  Jessica,  slowly,  as  she  closed 
the  door. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THANKSGIVING   AT   THE    LAWTONS', 

THE  church-bells  rang  out  next  morning  through 
a  crisp  and  frosty  air.  A  dazzling  glare  of  reflected 
sunshine  lay  on  the  dry  snow,  but  it  gave  no  sug 
gestion  of  warmth.  The  people  who  passed  on  their 
way  to  Thanksgiving  services  walked  hurriedly,  and 
looked  as  if  their  minds  were  concentrated  on  the 
hope  that  the  sexton  had  lighted  the  fire  in  the 
church  furnace  the  previous  day.  The  milkman  who 
stopped  his  sleigh  just  beyond  the  house  of  the  Law- 
tons  had  to  beat  off  a  great  rim  of  chalk-white  ice 
with  the  dipper  before  he  could  open  his  can. 

The  younger  members  of  the  Lawton  family  were 
not  dependent  upon  external  evidences,  however, 
for  their  knowledge  that  it  was  bitterly  cold.  It  was 
nearly  noon  when  they  began  to  gather  in  the  kitchen, 
and  cluster  about  the  decrepit  old  cooking-stove 
where  burned  the  only  fire  in  the  house.  A  shiver 
ing  and  unkempt  group  they  made,  in  the  bright 
daylight,  holding  their  red  hands  over  the  cracked 
stove-lids,  and  snarling  sulkily  at  the  weather  and 
one  another  when  they  spoke  at  all. 

Jessica  had  slept  badly,  and,  rising  early  and  dress 
ing  in  self-defence  against  the  cold,  had  found  her 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Lawtons.  89 

father  in  the  act  of  lighting  the  kitchen  fire.  An 
original  impulse  prompted  her  to  kiss  him  when  she 
bade  him  good-morning ;  and  Ben,  rising  awkwardly 
from  where  he  had  been  kneeling  in  front  of  the 
grate,  looked  both  surprised  and  shamefacedly  grati 
fied.  It  seemed  ages  since  one  of  his  daughters  had 
kissed  him  before. 

'  It's  a  regular  stinger  of  a  morning,  ain't  it  ?  "  he 
said,  blowing  his  fingers.  "  The  boards  in  the  side 
walk  jest  riz  up  and  went  off  under  my  feet  like 
pistols  last  night,  when  I  was  coming  home."  He 
added  with  an  accent  of  uneasiness  :  "  Suppose  you 
didn't  hear  me  come  in  ?  " 

He  seemed  pleased  when  she  shook  her  head,  and 
his  face  visibly  lightened.  He  winked  at  her  mys 
teriously,  and  going  over  to  a  recess  in  the  wall,  back 
of  the  woodbox,  dragged  out  a  lank  and  dishevelled 
turkey  of  a  dingy  gray  color,  not  at  all  resembling 
the  fowls  that  had  been  presented  to  him  the  previ 
ous  day. 

"  Trouble  with  me  was,"  he  said,  reflectively,  "  I 
shot  four  turkeys.  If  I  hadn't  been  a  bang-up  shot, 
and  had  only  killed  one,  why,  I'd  been  all  right.  But 
no,  I  couldn't  help  hitting  'em,  and  so  I  got  four. 
Of  course,  I  hadn't  any  use  for  so  many :  so  I  got  to 
raffling  'em  off,  and  that's  where  my  darned  luck 
come  in."  He  held  the  bird  up,  and  turned  it  slowly 
around,  regarding  it  with  an  amused  chuckle.  "  You 
know  this  cuss  ain't  one  of  them  I  shot,  at  all.  You 
see,  I  got  to  raffling,  and  one  time  I  stood  to  win 
nine  turkeys  and  a  lamp  and  a  jag  of  firewood.  But 


90  The  Lawton  Girl. 

then  the  thing  kind  o'  turned,  and  went  agin  me, 
and  darn  me  if  I  didn't  come  out  of  the  little  end 
of  the  horn,  with  nothing  but  this  here.  Sh-h  ! — 
M'rye's  coming.  Don't  say  nothing  to  her.  I  told 
her  I  earnt  it  carrying  in  some  coal." 

Mrs.  Lawton  entered  the  room  as  her  husband 
was  putting  back  the  turkey.  She  offered  no  re 
marks  beyond  a  scant  "  mornin' !  "  to  Jessica,  and 
directed  a  scowl  toward  Lawton,  before  which  he 
promptly  disappeared.  She  replied  curtly  in  the 
negative  when  Jessica  asked  if  there  was  anything 
she  could  do  ;  but  the  novelty  of  the  offer  seemed 
to  slowly  impress  her  mind,  for  after  a  time  she  began 
to  talk  of  her  own  accord.  Ben  had  come  home 
drunk  the  night  before,  she  said  ;  there  wasn't  any 
thing  new  in  that,  but  it  was  decidedly  new  for  him 
to  bring  something  to  eat  with  him.  He  said  he'd 
been  carrying  in  coal,  which  was  her  reason  for  be 
lieving  he  had  been  really  shaving  shingles  or  break 
ing  up  old  barrels.  He  couldn't  tell  the  truth  if  he 
tried — it  wasn't  in  him  not  to  lie.  The  worst  of  his 
getting  drunk  was  he  was  so  pesky  good-natured 
the  next  day.  Her  father  used  always  to  have  a 
headache  under  similar  conditions,  and  make  things 
peculiarly  interesting  for  everybody  round  about, 
from  her  mother  at  the  helm  of  the  boat  to  the 
nigger-boy  and  the  mule  on  the  tow-path  ahead. 
That  was  the  way  all  other  men  behaved,  too  :  that 
is,  all  who  were  good  for  anything.  But  Ben,  he 
just  grinned  and  did  more  chores  than  usual,  and 
hung  around  generally,  as  if  everybody  was  bound 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Lawtons.  91 

to  like  him   because  he  had    made  a    fool    of   him 
self. 

This  monologue  of  information  and  philosophy 
was  not  delivered  consecutively,  but  came  in  dis 
jointed  and  irrelevant  instalments,  spread  over  a 
considerable  space  of  time.  There  was  nothing  in 
it  all  which  suggested  a  reply,  and  Jessica  did  not 
even  take  the  trouble  to  listen  very  attentively. 
Her  own  thoughts  were  a  more  than  sufficient  oc 
cupation. 

The  failure  of  the  experiment  upon  which  she  had 
ventured  was  looming  in  unpleasant  bulk  before 
her.  Every  glance  about  her,  every  word  which 
fell  upon  her  ears,  furnished  an  added  reason  why 
she  was  not  going  to  be  able  to  live  on  the  lines  she 
had  laid  out.  Viewed  even  as  a  visit,  the  experi 
ence  was  hateful.  Contemplated  as  a  career,  it  was 
simply  impossible.  Rather  than  bear  it,  she  would 
go  back  to  Tecumseh  or  New  York  ;  and  rather  than 
do  this,  she  would  kill  herself. 

Too  depressed  to  control  her  thoughts,  much  less 
to  bend  them  definitely  upon  consideration  of  some 
possible  middle  course  between  suicide  and  exist 
ence  in  this  house,  Jessica  sat  silent  at  the  back  of 
the  stove,  and  suffered.  Her  evening  here  with  her 
sisters  seemed  to  blend  in  retrospect  with  the  sleep 
less  night  into  one  long,  confused,  intolerable  night 
mare.  They  had  scarcely  spoken  to  her,  and  she 
had  not  known  what  to  say  to  them.  For  some 
reason  they  had  chosen  to  stay  indoors  after  supper 
—although  this  was  plainly  not  their  habit — and 


92  The  Lawton  Girl. 

under  Samantha's  lead  had  entered  into  a  clumsy 
conspiracy  to  make  her  unhappy  by  meaning  looks, 
and  causeless  giggles,  and  more  or  less  ingenious  re 
marks  directed  at  her,  but  to  one  another.  Lucinda 
had  indeed  seemed  to  shrink  from  full  communion 
with  this  cabal,  but  she  had  shown  no  overt  act  of 
friendship,  and  the  three  younger  girls  had  been 
openly  hostile.  Even  after  she  had  taken  refuge  in 
her  cold  room,  at  an  abnormally  early  hour,  her 
sense  of  their  enmity  and  her  isolation  had  been 
kept  painfully  acute  by  their  loud  talk  in  the  hall, 
and  in  the  chamber  adjoining  hers.  Oh,  no  ! — she 
was  not  even  going  to  try  to  live  with  them,  she 
said  resolutely  and  with  set  teeth  to  herself. 

They  straggled  into  the  kitchen  now,  and  Lucinda 
was  the  only  one  of  them  who  said  "  good-morning" 
to  her.  Jessica  answered  her  greeting  almost  with 
effusion,  but  she  would  have  had  her  tongue  torn 
out  rather  than  allow  it  to  utter  a  solitary  first  word 
to  the  others.  They  stood  about  the  stove  for  a 
time,  and  then  sat  down  to  the  bare  kitchen  table 
upon  which  the  maternal  slattern  had  spread  a  kind 
of  breakfast.  Jessica  took  her  place  silently,  and 
managed  to  eat  a  little  of  the  bread,  dipped  in  pork 
fat.  '  The  coffee,  a  strange,  greasy,  light-brown  fluid 
without  milk,  she  could  not  bring  herself  to  touch. 
There  was  no  butter. 

After  this  odious  meal  was  over  Samantha  brought 
down  a  cheap  novel,  and  ensconced  herself  at  the  side 
of  the  stove,  with  her  feet  on  a  stick  of  wood  in  the 
oven.  The  twins,  after  some  protest,  entered  lazily 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Law  tons'.  93 

upon  the  task  of  plucking  the  turkey.  Lucinda 
drew  a  chair  to  the  window,  and  began  some  repairs 
on  her  bonnet.  For  sheer  want  of  other  employ 
ment,  Jessica  stood  by  the  window  for  a  time,  look 
ing  down  upon  this  crude  millinery.  Then  she 
diffidently  asked  to  be  allowed  to  suggest  some 
changes,  and  Lucinda  yielded  the  chair  to  her ;  and 
her  deft  fingers  speedily  wrought  such  a  transforma 
tion  in  the  work  that  the  owner  made  an  exclama 
tion  of  delight.  At  this  the  twins  left  their  turkey 
to  come  over  and  look,  and  even  Samantha  at  last 
quitted  the  stove  and  sauntered  to  the  window  with 
an  exaggerated  show  of  indifference.  She  looked 
on  for  a  moment,  and  then  returned  with  a  super 
cilious  sniff,  which  scared  the  twins  also  away. 
When  the  hat  was  finished,  and  Lucinda  had  tried 
it  on  with  obvious  satisfaction,  Jessica  asked  her  to 
go  for  a  little  walk,  and  the  two  went  out  together. 

There  was  a  certain  physical  relief  in  escaping 
from  the  close  and  evil-smelling  kitchen  into  the 
keen,  clear  cold,  but  of  mental  comfort  there  was 
little.  The  sister  had  nothing  beyond  a  few  com 
monplaces  to  offer  in  the  way  of  conversation,  and 
Jessica  was  in  no  mood  to  create  small-talk.  She 
walked  vigorously  forward  as  far  as  the  sidewalks 
were  shovelled,  indifferent  to  direction  and  to  sur 
roundings,  and  intent  only  upon  the  angry  and  dis 
tracting  thoughts  which  tore  one  another  in  her 
mind.  It  was  not  until  the  drifts  forced  them  to 
turn  that  she  spoke. 

"  I  always  dread  to  get  downright  mad  :  it  makes 


94  The  Lawton  Girl. 

me  sick,"  she  exclaimed,  in  defiant  explanation  to  the 
dull  Lucinda,  who  did  not  seem  to  have  enjoyed  her 
walk. 

"  If  I  was  you,  I  wouldn't  mind  'em,"  said  the  sis 
ter.  "  You  just  keep  a  stiff  upper  lip  and  tend  to 
your  own  knitting,  and  they'll  be  coming  around  in 
no  time  to  get  you  to  fix  their  bonnets  for  'em.  I 
bet  you  Samanthy  '11  have  her  brown  plush  hat  to 
pieces,  and  be  bringing  it  to  you  before  Sunday." 

"  She'll  have  to  bring  it  to  me  somewhere  else, 
then.  To-day's  my  last  day  in  that  house,  and  don't 
you  forget  it  !  " 

Jessica  spoke  with  such  vehemence  that  Lucinda 
could  only  stare  at  her  in  surprise,  and  the  town  girl 
went  excitedly  on  :  "  When  I  saw  father  yesterday, 
I  was  almost  glad  I'd  come  back;  and  you — well, 
you've  been  decent  to  me,  too.  But  the  rest — ah-h  ! 
— I've  been  swearing  in  my  mind  every  second  since 
they  came  into  the  kitchen  this  morning.  I  was 
all  for  tears  yesterday.  I  started  out  crying  at  the 
depdt,  and  I  cried  the  best  part  of  last  night  ;  but 
I've  got  all  through.  Do  you  mind?  I'm  through  ! 
If  there's  got  to  be  any  more  weeping,  they're  the 
ones  that'll  do  it !  " 

She  ground  her  teeth  together  as  she  spoke,  as  if 
to  prevent  a  further  outpouring  of  angry  words.  All 
at  once  she  stopped,  on  some  sudden  impulse,  and 
looked  her  half-sister  in  the  face.  It  was  a  long; 
intent  scrutiny,  under  which  Lucinda  flushed  and 
fidgeted,  but  its  result  was  to  soften  Jessica's  mood. 
She  resumed  the  walk  again,  but  with  a  less  ener* 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Lawtons  .  95 

getic  step,  and  the  hard,  wrathful  lines  in  her  face 
had  begun  to  melt. 

"  Probably  there  will  be  no  need  for  any  one  else 
to  weep,"  she  said,  ashamed  of  her  recent  outburst. 
"God  knows, /oughtn't  to  want  to  make  anybody 
unhappy !  "  Then  after  a  moment's  silence  she 
asked  :  "  Do  you  work  anywhere  ?  " 

"  I've  got  a  job  at  the  Scotch-cap  factory  as  long 
as  it's  running." 

"  How  much  can  you  earn  there  ?  " 

"  Three  dollars  a  week  is  what  I'm  getting,  but 
they're  liable  to  shut  down  any  time  now." 

Jessica  pondered  upon  this  information  for  a  little. 
Then  she  put  another  question,  with  increased  inter 
est.  "  And  do  you  like  it  at  home,  with  the  rest  of 
them,  there  ?  " 

"  Like  it?  Yes,  about  as  much  as  a  cat  likes  hot 
soap.  It's  worse  now  a  hundred  times  than  it  was 
when  you  lit  out.  If  there  was  any  place  to  go  to, 
I'd  be  off  like  a  shot." 

"  Well,  then,  here's  what  I  wanted  to  ask  you. 
When  I  leave  it,  what's  the  matter  with  your  coming 
with  me  ?  I  mean  it.  And  I'll  look  after  you." 

The  girl's  revolt  against  her  new  and  odious  envi 
ronment  had  insensibly  carried  her  back  into  the  free 
phraseology  of  her  former  life.  As  this  was  equally 
familiar  to  Lucinda's  factory-attuned  ear,  it  could  not 
have  been  the  slang  expression  at  which  she  halted. 
But  she  did  stop,  and  in  turn  looked  sharply  into  Jes 
sica's  face.  Her  own  cheeks,  red  with  exposure  to 
the  biting  air,  flushed  to  a  deeper  tint. 


96  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"You  better  ask  Samantha,  if  that's  your  game," 
she  said.  "  She's  more  in  your  line.  I  ain't  on  that 
lay  myself." 

Before  Jessica  had  fairly  comprehended  the  pur 
port  of  this  remark,  her  sister  had  started  briskly  off 
by  herself.  The  town  girl  stood  bewildered  for  a 
moment,  with  a  little  inarticulate  moan  of  pained 
astonishment  trembling  on  her  lips.  Then  she 
turned  and  ran  after  Lucinda. 

"  Wait  a  minute  !  "  she  panted  out  as  she  over 
took  her.  "  You  didn't  understand  me.  I  wouldn't 
for  a  million  dollars  have  you  think  that  of  me. 
Please  wait,  and  let  me  tell  you  what  I  really 
meant.  You'll  break  my  heart  if  you  don't !  " 

Thus  adjured,  Lucinda  stopped,  and  consented  to 
fall  in  with  the  other's  slower  step.  She  let  it  be 
seen  plainly  enough  that  she  was  a  hostile  auditor, 
but  still  she  listened.  As  Jessica,  with  a  readier 
tongue  than  she  had  found  in  Reuben  Tracy's  pres 
ence  the  day  before,  outlined  her  plan,  the  factory- 
girl  heard  her,  first  with  incredulity,  then  with  inter 
est,  and  soon  with  enthusiasm. 

"  Go  with  you  ?  You  just  bet  I  will  !  "  was  the 
form  of  her  adhesion  to  the  plan,  when  it  had  been 
presented  to  her. 

The  two  young  women  extended  their  walk  by 
tacit  consent  far  beyond  the  original  intention,  and 
it  was  past  the  hour  set  for  the  dinner  when  they 
at  last  reluctantly  entered  the  inhospitable-looking 
domicile.  Its  shabby  aspect  and  the  meanness  of  its 
poverty-stricken  belongings  had  never  seemed  so 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Lawtons\  97 

apparent  before  to  either  of  them,  as  they  drew  near 
to  it,  but  it  was  even  less  inviting  within. 

They  were  warned  that  it  would  be  so  by  their 
father,  whom  they  encountered  just  outside  the 
kitchen  door,  chopping  up  an  old  plank  for  fire 
wood.  Ben  had  put  on  a  glaringly  white  paper 
collar,  to  mark  his  sense  of  the  importance  of  the 
festival,  and  the  effect  seemed  to  heighten  the 
gloom  on  his  countenance. 

"  There's  the  old  Harry  to  pay  in  there,"  he  said, 
nodding  his  head  toward  the  door.  "  Melissa's  come 
in  from  the  farm  to  spend  the  day,  because  she 
heard  you  was  here,  Jess,  and  somehow  she  got 
the  idee  you'd  bring  a  lot  of  dresses  and  fixings, 
and  she  wanted  her  share,  and  got  mad  because 
there  wasn't  any ;  and  Samantha  she  pitched  into 
her  about  coming  to  eat  up  our  dinner,  and  M'rye 
she  took  Melissa's  part,  and  so  I  kind  o'  sashayed 
out.  They  don't  need  this  wood  any  more'n  a 
frog  needs  a  tail,  but  I'm  going  to  whack  'er  all 
up." 

The  Thanksgiving  dinner  which  shortly  ensued 
had  a  solitary  merit :  it  did  not  last  very  long.  But 
hurried  as  it  was,  Jessica  did  not  sit  it  out.  The 
three  sisters  with  whom  she  was  not  friendly  had 
been  quarrelling,  it  seemed,  with  Melissa,  the  heavy- 
browed  and  surly  girl  who  worked  out  at  the  Fair- 
child  farm,  but  all  four  combined  in  an  instant 
against  the  new-comers.  Lucinda  had  never  shone 
in  repartee,  and,  though  she  did  not  shrink  from 
bearing  a  part  in  the  conflict  to  which  she  suddenly 


98  The  Lawton  Girl. 

found  herself  a  party,  what  she  was  able  to  say  only 
made  matters  worse.  As  for  Jessica,  she  bit  her  lips 
in  fierce  restraint,  and  for  a  long  time  said  nothing 
at  all.  Melissa  had  formally  shaken  hands  with  her, 
and  had  not  spoken  a  word. 

When  the  thin  turkey  was  put  upon  the  table, 
and  Mrs.  Lawton  had  with  some  difficulty  mangled 
it  into  eight  approximately  equal  portions,  a  period 
of  silence  fell  on  the  party — silence  broken  only  by 
sounds  of  the  carnivora  which  are  not  expected  at 
the  banquets  of  the  polite.  Even  this  measly  fowl, 
badly  cooked  and  defiled  by  worse  than  tasteless 
dressing  though  it  was,  represented  a  treat  in  the 
Lawton  household,  and  the  resident  members  fell 
upon  it  with  eager  teeth.  Melissa  sniffed  a  trifle 
at  her  portion,  to  let  it  be  seen  that  they  were  bet 
ter  fed  out  on  the  farm,  but  she  ate  vigorously  none 
the  less.  It  was  only  Jessica  who  could  summon  no 
appetite,  and  who  sat  silent  and  sick  at  heart,  wear 
ily  striving  at  the  pretence  of  eating  in  order  not 
to  attract  attention.  She  was  conscious  of  hostile 
glances  being  cast  upon  her  from  either  side,  but 
she  kept  her  eyes  as  steadily  as  she  could  upon  her 
plate  or  on  her  father,  who  sat  opposite  and  who 
smiled  at  her  encouragingly  from  time  to  time. 

It  was  one  of  the  ungracious  twins  who  first  at 
tained  the  leisure  in  which  to  note  Jessica's  failure 
to  eat,  and  commented  audibly  upon  the  difficulty 
of  catering  to  the  palates  of  "  fine  ladies."  The 
phrase  was  instantly  repeated  with  a  sneering  em 
phasis  by  Samantha,  which  was  the  signal  for  a 


Thanksgiving  at  the  Lawtons\  99 

burst  of  giggling,  in  which  Melissa  joined.  Then 
Samantha,  speaking  very  distinctly  and  with  an  os^ 
tentatious  parade  of  significance,  informed  Melissa 
that  young  Horace  Boyce  had  returned  to  Thes- 
saly  only  the  previous  day,  "  on  the  very  train  which 
father  went  down  to  meet."  This  treatment  of 
Melissa  as  a  vehicle  for  the  introduction  of  disa- 
greeable  topics  impressed  the  twins  as  a  shrewd 
invention,  and  one  of  them  promptly  added  : 

"Yes,  M'liss',  and  who  do  you  think  called  here 
yesterday  ?  Reuben  Tracy  the  lawyer.  He  was 
there  in  the  parlor  for  half  an  hour — pretty  cold  he 
must  have  found  it — but  he  wasn't  alone." 

"  Oh,  yes,  we're  getting  quite  fashionable,"  put 
in  Samantha.  "  Father  ought  to  set  out  a  hitching- 
post  and  a  carriage-block,  so  that  we  can  receive  our 
callers  in  style.  I  hope  it  will  be  a  stone  one,  dad." 

"  And  so  do  I,"  broke  in  Lucinda,  angrily,  "  and 
then  I'd  like  to  see  your  head  pounded  on  it,  for  all 
it  was  worth." 

"  Well,  if  it  was,"  retorted  Samantha,  "  it  would 
make  a  noise.  And  that's  more  than  yours  would." 

"  You  shut  up !  "  shouted  Ben  Lawton,  with  the 
over-vehemence  of  a  weak  nature  in  excitement. 
"  Hain't  you  got  no  decency  nor'compassion  in  ye? 
Has  she  done  any  harm  to  you  ?  Can't  you  give 
her  a  chance — to — to  live  it  down?" 

While  the  echoes  of  this  loud,  indignant  voice 
were  still  on  the  air,  Jessica  had  pushed  her  chair 
back,  risen,  and  walked  straight  to  the  door  leading 
up-stairs.  She  looked  at  nobody  as  she  passed,  but 


too  The  Lawton  Girl. 

held  her  pale  face  proudly  erect,  though  her  lips 
were  quivering. 

After  she  had  opened  the  door,  some  words 
seemed  to  come  to  her,  and  she  turned. 

"  Live  it  down  !  "  she  said,  speaking  more  loudly 
than  was  her  wont,  to  keep  her  faltering  voice  from 
breaking.  "  Live  it  down !  Why,  father,  these 
people  don't  want  me  to  live  at  all !  " 

Then  she  closed  the  door,  and  was  seen  no  more 
that  day. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  PARTNERSHIP. 

EITHER  through  the  softening  influence  of  the 
Thanksgiving  festival  upon  litigious  natures,  or  by 
reason  of  the  relaxing  reaction  from  over-feasting,  it 
happened  that  no  clients  of  any  kind  visited  Reuben 
Tracy's  law  office  next  day.  He  came  down  early 
enough  to  light  his  own  fires  in  both  the  inner  and 
outer  rooms — an  experience  for  which  he  had  been 
prepared  by  long  observation  of  the  effect  produced 
by  holidays  upon  his  clerk — and  he  sat  for  a  couple 
of  hours  by  the  stove,  with  his  feet  on  the  table  and 
a  book  in  his  lap,  waiting  for  Horace  Boyce  to  keep 
the  appointment.  The  book  was  an  old  collection 
of  Carlyle's  earlier  essays,  and  Reuben  liked  it  better, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  member  of  his  library  family. 
He  had  not  read  it  through,  and  there  was  a  good 
deal  in  it  which  he  seemed  likely  never  to  read. 
But  there  were  other  portions,  long  since  very  fa 
miliar  to  his  mind  and  eye,  which  it  was  his  habit 
to  go  over  again  whenever  he  had  nothing  else  to 
do.  The  rough,  thought-compelling  diction  rested 
his  brain,  by  some  curious  rule  of  paradox.  In  the 
front  of  the  volume  he  had  written,  "  Not  new  books, 
but  good  books,"  an  apothegm  adapted  from  a  pref- 


iO2  The  Lawton  Girl. 

ace  of  an  old  English  play  which  had  pleased 
him. 

He  was  indolently  ruminating  on  the  wealth  of 
epithet  with  which  the  portrait  of  Cagliostro  is 
painted,  when  his  expected  visitor  arrived.  He 
laughed  aloud  at  some  whimsical  conceit  that  this 
association  of  people  suggested,  and  tossed  the  book 
aside  as  he  rose. 

"I've  been  killing  time,"  he  said,  still  smiling, 
"  by  reading  about  the  prize  impostor  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century.  You  know  it  ?  —  The  Diamond 
Necklace.  I  like  to  read  it.  For  good,  downright 
swindling  and  effrontery  there's  nothing  anywhere 
like  that  fellow." 

Horace  glanced  at  the  book  as  he  shook  hands 
and  took  off  his  overcoat.  He  said  nothing,  but 
made  a  mental  note  that  Reuben  had  come  to  know 
about  Carlyle  after  everybody  else  had  ceased  read 
ing  him. 

The  two  young  men  sat  down  together,  and  their 
talk  for  the  first  hour  or  so  was  of  business  matters. 
Reuben  made  clear  what  his  practice  was  like,  its 
dimensions,  its  profits,  and  its  claims  upon  his  time. 
The  railroad  business  had  come  to  him  through  the 
influence  of  his  old  friend  Congressman  Ansdell,  of 
Tecumseh,  and  was  very  important.  The  farmers 
in  the  vicinity,  too,  had  brought  him  the  bulk  of 
their  patronage  in  the  matter  of  drawing  deeds  and 
mortgages — most  frequently  the  latter,  he  was  sorry 
to  say — because  he  was  a  farmer's  son.  This  con 
veyancing  work  had  grown  to  such  proportions,  and 


The  Partnership. 


entailed  such  an  amount  of  consultation,  that  he 
had  been  more  and  more  crowded  out  from  active 
court  practice,  which  he  was  reluctant  to  abandon. 
This  was  his  reason  for  thinking  of  a  partner.  Then 
the  conversation  drifted  into  discussion  of  Horace's 
fitness  for  the  place,  and  his  proper  share  in  the 
earnings  of  the  firm.  They  went  over  for  dinner  to 
the  Dearborn  House,  where  Reuben  lived,  before 
this  branch  of  the  talk  was  concluded.  Upon  their 
return,  over  some  cigars  which  Horace  thought  very 
bad,  they  made  more  headway,  and  arrived  at  an 
understanding  satisfactory  to  both.  Reuben  printed 
the  firm  name  of  "  Tracy  &  Boyce  "  on  a  blotter,  to 
see  how  it  would  look,  and  Horace  talked  confi 
dently  of  the  new  business  which  the  long  connection 
of  his  family  with  Thessaly  would  bring  to  them. 

"You  know,  they've  been  here  from  the  very  be 
ginning.  My  great-grandfather  was  county  judge 
here  as  far  back  as  1796,  almost  the  first  one  after 
the  county  was  created.  And  his  son,  my  great- 
uncle,  was  congressman  one  term,  and  assemblyman 
for  years;  and  another  brother  was  the  president  of 
the  bank;  and  my  grandfather  was  the  rector  of  St. 
Matthew's  ;  and  then  my  father  being  the  best-known 
soldier  Dearborn  sent  out  during  the  war  —  what  I 
mean  is,  all  this  ought  to  help  a  good  deal.  It's 
something  to  have  a  name  that  is  as  much  a  part 
of  the  place  as  Thessaly  itself.  You  see  what  I 
mean?" 

Horace  finished  with  an  almost  nervous  query, 
for  it  had  dawned  upon  him  that  his  companion 


104  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

might  not  share  this  high  opinion  of  the  value  of  an 
old  name  and  pedigree.  Come  to  think  of  it,  the 
Tracys  were  nobody  in  particular,  and  he  glanced 
apprehensively  at  Reuben's  large,  placid  face  for 
signs  of  pique.  But  there  was  none  visible  to  the 
naked  eye,  and  Horace  lighted  a  fresh  cigar,  and  put 
his  feet  up  on  the  table  beside  those  of  his  new 
partner. 

"  I  daresay  there's  something  in  that,"  Reuben 
remarked  after  a  time.  "  Of  course  there  must  be, 
and  for  that  matter  I  guess  a  name  goes  for  more 
in  our  profession  than  it  does  anywhere  else.  I 
suppose  it's  natural  for  people  to  assume  that  juris 
prudence  runs  in  families,  like  snub-noses  and  drink." 
As  soon  as  he  had  uttered  this  last  word,  it  occurred 
to  him  that  possibly  Horace  might  construe  it  with 
reference  to  his  father,  and  he  made  haste  to  add  : 

"  I  never  told  you,  I  think,  about  my  own  career. 
I  don't  talk  about  it  often,  for  it  makes  a  fellow  sound 
like  Mr.  Bounderby  in  Hard  Times — the  chap  who 
was  always  bragging  about  being  a  self-made  man." 

"  No  ;  I'd  like  to  hear  about  it,"  said  Horace. 
"  The  first  I  remember  of  you  was  at  the  seminary 
here." 

"  Well,  I  was  only  fifteen  years  old  then,  and  all 
the  story  I've  got  dates  before  that.  I  can  just  re 
member  when  we  moved  into  this  part  of  the  world 
— coming  from  Orange  County.  My  father  had 
bought  a  small  farm  some  fifteen  miles  from  here, 
over  near  Tyre,  and  we  moved  onto  it  in  the  spring. 
I  was  about  five.  I  had  an  older  brother,  Ezra,  and 


The  Partnership.  105 

two  younger  ones.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  hard 
work  to  do,  and  father  tried  to  do  it  all  himself,  and 
so  by  harvest  time  he  was  laid  up ;  and  the  men  who 
came  and  got  in  the  crops  on  shares  robbed  us  down 
to  the  ground.  When  winter  came,  father  had  to 
get  up,  whether  he  was  well  enough  or  not,  and  chop 
wood  for  the  market,  to  make  up  for  the  loss  on 
harvesting.  One  evening  he  didn't  come  home,  and 
the  team  was  away  all  night,  too,  with  mother  never 
going  to  bed  at  all,  and  then  before  daybreak  taking 
Ezra  to  carry  a  lantern,  and  starting  through  the 
drifts  for  our  patch  of  woods.  They  found  my  father 
dead  in  the  forest,  crushed  under  a  falling  tree. 

"  I  suppose  it  was  a  terrible  winter.  I  only  dimly 
remember  it,  or  the  summer  that  followed.  When 
another  winter  was  coming  on,  my  mother  grew 
frightened.  Try  the  best  she  knew  how,  she  was 
worse  off  every  month  than  she  had  been  the  month 
before.  To  pay  interest  on  the  mortgage,  she  had  to 
sell  what  produce  we  had  managed  to  get  in,  keep 
ing  only  a  bare  moiety  for  ourselves,  and  to  give  up 
the  woodland  altogether.  Soon  the  roads  would 
be  blocked  ;  there  was  not  enough  fodder  for  what 
stock  we  had,  nor  even  food  enough  for  us.  We  had 
no  store  of  fuel,  and  no  means  of  staving  off  starva 
tion.  Under  stern  compulsion,  solely  to  secure  a 
home  for  her  boys,  my  mother  married  a  well-to-do 
farmer  in  the  neighborhood — a  man  much  older  than 
herself,  and  the  owner  of  a  hundred-acre  farm  and 
of  the  mortgages  on  our  own  little  thirty  acres. 

"  I  suppose  he  meant  to  be  a  just  man,  but  he-was 


io6  The  Lawton  Girl. 

as  hard  as  a  steel  bloom.  He  was  a  prodigious 
worker,  and  he  made  us  all  work,  without  rest  or  re 
ward.  When  I  was  nine  years  old,  narrow-chested 
and  physically  delicate,  I  had  to  get  up  before  sun 
rise  for  the  milking,  and  then  work  all  day  in  the 
hay-field,  making  and  cocking,  and  obliged  to  keep 
ahead  of  the  wagon  under  pain  of  a  flogging.  Three 
years  of  this  I  had,  and  I  recall  them  as  you  might 
a  frightful  nightmare.  I  had  some  stray  schooling — 
my  mother  insisted  upon  that — but  it  wasn't  much ; 
and  I  remember  that  the  weekly  paper  was  stopped 
after  that  because  Ezra  and  I  wasted  too  much  time 
in  reading  it. 

"  Finally  my  health  gave  out.  My  mother  feared 
that  I  would  die,  and  at  last  gained  the  point  of  my 
being  allowed  to  go  to  Tyre  to  school,  if  I  could 
earn  my  board  and  clothes  there.  I  went  through 
the  long  village  street  there,  stopping  at  every  house 
to  ask  if  they  wanted  a  little  boy  to  do  chores  for  his 
board  and  go  to  school.  I  said  nothing  about  clothes 
after  the  first  few  inquiries.  It  took  me  almost  all 
day  to  find  a  place.  It  was  nearly  the  last  house  in 
the  village.  The  people  happened  to  want  a  boy, 
and  agreed  to  take  me.  I  had  only  to  take  care 
of  two  horses,  milk  four  cows,  saw  wood  for  three 
stoves,  and  run  errands.  When  I  lay  awake  in  my 
new  bed  that  night,  it  was  with  joy  that  I  had  found 
such  a  kind  family  and  such  an  easy  place  ! 

"  I  went  to  school  for  a  year,  and  learned  some 
thing — not  much,  I  daresay,  but  something.  Then 
I  went  back  to  the  farm,  alternating  between  that 


The  Partnership.  107 

and  other  places  in  Tyre,  some  better,  some  worse, 
until  finally  I  had  saved  eight  dollars.  Then  I  told 
my  mother  that  I  was  going  to  Thessaly  seminary. 
She  laughed  at  me — they  all  laughed — but  in  the 
end  I  had  my  way.  They  fitted  me  out  with  some 
clothes — a  vest  of  Ezra's,  an  old  hat,  trousers  cut 
perfectly  straight  and  much  too  short,  and  clumsy 
boots  two  sizes  too  big  for  me,  which  had  been 
bought  by  my  stepfather  in  wrath  at  our  continual 
trouble  in  the  winter  to  get  on  our  stiffened  and 
shrunken  boots. 

"  I  walked  the  first  ten  miles  with  a  light  heart. 
Then  I  began  to  grow  frightened.  I  had  never  been 
to  Thessaly,  and  though  I  knew  pretty  well  from 
others  that  I  should  be  well  received,  and  even 
helped  to  find  work  to  maintain  myself,  the  prospect 
of  the  new  life,  now  so  close  at  hand,  unnerved  me. 
I  remember  once  sitting  down  by  the  roadside,  wav 
ering  whether  to  go  on  or  not.  At  last  I  stood  on 
the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  saw  Thessaly  lying  in  the  val 
ley  before  me.  If  I  were  to  live  a  thousand  years,  I 
couldn't  forget  that  sight — the  great  elms,  the  white 
buildings  of  the  seminary,  the  air  of  peace  and  learn 
ing  and  plenty  which  it  all  wore.  I  tell  you,  tears 
came  to  my  eyes  as  I  looked,  and  more  than  once 
they've  come  again,  when  I've  recalled  the  picture. 
I  remember,  too,  that  later  on  in  the  day  old  Dr. 
Burdick  turned  me  loose  in  the  library,  as  it  were 
There  were  four  thousand  books  there,  and  the  sight 
of  them  took  my  breath  away.  I  looked  at  them  for 
a  long  time,  I  know,  with  my  mouth  wide  open.  It 


io8  The  Lawton  Girl. 

was  clear  to  me  that  I  should  never  be  able  to  read 
them  all — nobody,  I  thought,  could  do  that — but  at 
last  I  picked  out  a  set  of  the  encyclopaedia  at  the 
end  of  the  shelf  nearest  the  door,  and  decided  to 
begin  there,  and  at  least  read  as  far  through  the  room 
as  I  could." 

Reuben  stopped  here,  and  relighted  his  cigar. 
"  That's  my  story,"  he  said  after  a  pause,  as  if  he 
had  brought  the  recital  up  to  date. 

"  I  should  call  that  only  the  preface — or  rather, 
the  prologue,"  said  Horace. 

"  No  ;  the  rest  is  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary.  I 
managed  to  live  through  the  four  years  here — ped 
dling  a  little,  then  travelling  for  a  photographer  in 
Tecumsehwho  made  enlarged  copies  of  old  pictures 
collected  from  the  farm-houses,  then  teaching  school. 
I  studied  law  first  by  myself,  then  with  Ansdell  at 
Tecumseh,  and  then  one  year  in  New  York  at  the 
Columbia  Law  School.  I  was  admitted  down  there, 
and  had  a  fair  prospect  of  remaining  there,  but  I 
couldn't  make  myself  like  New  York.  It  is  too  big  ; 
a  fellow  has  no  chance  to  be  himself  there.  And  so 
I  came  back  here  ;  and  I  haven't  done  so  badly,  all 
things  considered." 

"  No,  indeed  ;  I  should  think  not  !  "  was  Horace's 
hearty  comment. 

"  But  I  see  the  way  now,  I  think,"  continued  Reu 
ben,  meditatively,  "  to  doing  much  better  still.  I  see  a 
good  many  ways  in  which  you  can  help  me  greatly." 

"  I  should  hope  so,"  smiled  young  Mr.  Boyce. 
"  That's  what  I'm  coming  in  for." 


The  Partnership.  109 

"I'm  not  thinking  so  much  of  the  business," 
answered  Reuben  ;  "  there  need  be  no  borrowing  of 
trouble  about  that.  But  there  are  things  outside 
that  I  want  to  do.  I  spoke  a  little  about  this  the 
other  day,  I  think." 

"  You  said  something  about  going  into  politics," 
replied  Horace,  not  so  heartily.  The  notion  had 
already  risen  in  his  mind  that  the  junior  member  of 
the  new  partnership  might  be  best  calculated  to  shine 
in  the  arena  of  the  public  service,  if  the  firm  was  to 
go  in  for  that  sort  of  thing. 

"  Oh,  no  !  not  '  politics  '  in  the  sense  you  mean," 
explained  Reuben.  "  My  ambition  doesn't  extend 
beyond  this  village  that  we're  in.  I'm  not  satisfied 
with  it ;  there  are  a  thousand  things  that  we  ought 
to  be  doing  better  than  we  are,  and  I've  got  a  great 
longing  to  help  improve  them.  That  was  what  I 
referred  to.  That  is  what  has  been  in  my  mind  ever 
since  my  return.  You  spoke  about  politics  just  now. 
Strictly  speaking,  *  politics  '  ought  to  embrace  in  its 
meaning  all  the  ways  by  which  the  general  good  is 
served,  and  nothing  else.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  has  come  to  mean  first  of  all  the  individual  good, 
and  quite  often  the  sacrifice  of  everything  else.  This 
is  natural  enough,  I  suppose.  Unless  a  man  watches 
himself  very  closely,  it  is  easy  for  him  to  grow  to 
attach  importance  to  the  honor  and  the  profit  of  the 
place  he  holds,  and  to  forget  its  responsibilities.  In 
that  way  you  come  to  have  a  whole  community 
regarding  an  office  as  a  prize,  as  a  place  to  be  fought 
for,  and  not  as  a  place  to  do  more  work  in  than  the 


I  io  The  Lawton  Girl. 

rest  perform.  This  notion  once  established,  whyv 
politics  comes  naturally  enough  to  mean — well,  what 
it  does  mean.  The  politicians  are  not  so  much  to 
blame.  They  merely  reflect  the  ideas  of  the  public. 
If  they  didn't,  they  couldn't  stand  up  a  minute  by 
their  own  strength.  You  catch  my  idea  ?  " 

"  Perfectly,"  said  Horace,  politely  dissembling  a 
slight  yawn. 

"  Well,  then,  the  thing  to  do  is  to  get  at  the  pub 
lic  mind — to  get  the  people  into  the  right  way  of 
regarding  these  things.  It  is  no  good  effecting  tem 
porary  reforms  in  certain  limited  directions  by  out 
bursts  of  popular  feeling  ;  for  just  as  soon  as  the  pub 
lic  indignation  cools  down,  back  come  the  abuses. 
And  so  they  will  do  inevitably  until  the  people  get 
up  to  a  calm,  high  level  of  intelligence  about  the  man 
agement  of  such  affairs  as  they  have  in  common." 

"  Quite  so,"  remarked  Horace. 

"Of  course  all  this  is  trite  commonplace,"  con 
tinued  Reuben.  "  You  can  read  it  in  any  newspaper 
any  day.  My  point  is  in  the  application  of  it.  It's 
all  well  enough  to  say  these  things  in  a  general  way. 
Everybody  knows  they  are  true  ;  nobody  disputes 
them  any  more  than  the  multiplication-table.  But 
the  exhortation  does  no  good  for  that  very  reason. 
Each  reader  says:  '  Yes,  it's  too  bad  that  my  neigh 
bors  don't  comprehend  these  things  better  ;  '  and 
there's  an  end  to  the  matter.  Nothing  is  effected, 
because  no  particular  person  is  addressed.  Now, 
my  notion  is  that  the  way  to  do  is  to  take  a  single 
small  community,  and  go  at  it  systematically — a 


The  Partnership.  in 

house-to-house  canvass,  so  to  speak — and  labor  to 
improve  its  intelligence,  its  good  taste,  its  general 
public  attitude  toward  its  own  public  affairs.  One 
can  fairly  count  on  at  least  some  results,  going  at  it 
in  that  way." 

"No  doubt,"  said  the  junior  partner,  smiling 
faintly. 

"  Well,  then,  I've  got  a  scheme  for  a  sort  of  society 
here — perhaps  in  the  nature  of  a  club — made  up  of 
men  who  have  an  interest  in  the  town  and  who  want 
to  do  good.  I've  spoken  to  two  or  three  about  it. 
Perhaps  it  is  your  coming — I  daresay  it  is — but  all 
at  once  I  feel  that  it  is  time  to  start  it.  My  notion 
is  it  ought  to  establish  as  a  fundamental  principle 
that  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  anything  outside 
Thessaly  and  the  district  roundabout.  That  is  what 
we  need  in  this  country  as  much  as  anything  else — 
the  habit  of  minding  our  own  immediate  business. 
The  newspapers  have  taught  us  to  attend  every  day 
to  what  is  going  on  in  New  York  and  Chicago  and 
London  and  Paris,  and  every  other  place  under  the 
sun  except  our  own.  That  is  an  evil.  We  have 
become  like  a  gossiping  woman  who  spends  all  her 
time  in  learning  what  her  neighbors  are  doing,  and 
lets  the  fire  go  out  at  home.  Now,  I  like  to  think 
this  can  be  altered  a  good  deal,  if  we  only  set  to 
work  at  it.  You  have  been  abroad ;  you  have  seen 
how  other  people  do  things,  and  have  wider  notions 
than  the  rest  of  us,  no  doubt,  as  to  what  should  be 
done.  What  do  you  say?  Does  the  idea  attract 
you  ?  " 


H2  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Horace's  manner  confessed  to  some  surprise. 
"  It's  a  pretty  large  order,"  he  said  at  last,  smilingly. 
"  I've  never  regarded  myself  as  specially  cut  out  for 
a  reformer.  Still,  there's  a  good  deal  in  what  you 
say.  I  suppose  it  is  practicable  enough,  when  you 
come  really  to  examine  it." 

"  At  all  events,  we  can  try,"  answered  Reuben, 
with  the  glow  of  earnestness  shining  on  his  face. 
"  John  Fairchild  is  almost  as  fond  of  the  notion  as  I 
am,  and  his  paper  will  be  of  all  sorts  of  use.  Then, 
there's  Father  Chance,  the  Catholic  priest,  a  splen 
did  fellow,  and  Dr.  Lester,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Turner, 
and  a  number  of  others  more  or  less  friendly  to  the 
scheme.  I'm  sure  they  will  all  feel  the  importance 
of  having  you  in  it.  Your  having  lived  in  Europe 
makes  such  a  difference.  You  can  see  things  with  a 
new  eye." 

Horace  gave  a  little  laugh.  "  What  my  new  eye 
has  seen  principally  so  far,"  he  said,  with  an  amused 
smile  running  through  his  words,  "  is  the  prevalence 
of  tobacco  juice.  But  of  course  there  are  hundreds 
of  things  our  provincial  people  could  learn  with 
profit  from  Europe.  There,  for  example,  is  the 
hideous  cooking  done  at  all  the  small  places.  In 
England,  for  instance,  it  is  a  delight  to  travel  in  the 
country,  simply  because  the  food  is  so  good  in  the 
little  rural  inns  ;  our  country  hotel  here  is  a  horror. 
Then  the  roads  are  so  bad  here,  when  they  might  be 
made  so  good.  The  farmer  works  out  his  road  tax 
by  going  out  and  ploughing  up  the  highway,  and  you 
break  your  carriage-wheels  in  the  task  of  smoothing 


The  Partnership.  113 

it  down  again.  Porters  to  carry  one's  luggage  at 
railway  stations — that's  something  we  need,  too. 
And  the  drinking  of  light  beers  and  thin,  wholesome 
wines  instead  of  whiskey — that  would  do  a  great 
deal.  Then  men  shouldn't  be  allowed  to  build  those 
ugly  flat-topped  wooden  houses,  with  tin  eaves- 
troughs.  No  people  can  grow  up  to  be  civilized 
who  have  these  abominations  thrust  upon  their 
sight  daily.  And — oh,  I  had  forgotten  ! — there 
ought  to  be  a  penal  law  against  those  beastly  sul 
phur  matches  with  black  heads.  I  lit  one  by  acci 
dent  the  other  night,  and  I  haven't  got  the  smell 
of  it  out  of  my  nostrils  yet." 

Horace  ended,  as  he  had  begun,  with  a  cheerful 
chuckle ;  but  his  companion,  who  sat  looking  ab 
stractedly  at  the  snow  line  of  the  roofs  opposite, 
did  not  smile. 

"  Those  are  the  minor  things — the  graces  of  life," 
he  said,  speaking  slowly.  "  No  doubt  they  have  their 
place,  their  importance.  But  I  am  sick  at  heart 
over  bigger  matters — over  the  greed  for  money,  the 
drunkenness,  the  indifference  to  real  education,  the 
neglect  of  health,  the  immodesty  and  commonness 
of  our  young  folks'  thought  and  intercourse,  the 
narrowness  and  mental  squalor  of  the  life  people 
live  all  about  me — 

"  It  is  so  everywhere,  my  dear  fellow,"  broke  in 
Horace.  "You  are  making  us  worse  by  comparison 
than  we  are." 

"  But  we  ought  to  be  so  infinitely  better  by  com 
parison  !  And  we  have  it  really  in  us  to  be  better. 
8 


114  2^*  Law  ton  Girl. 

Only  nobody  is  concerned  about  the  others  ;  there  is 
no  one  to  check  the  drift,  to  organize  public  feeling 
for  its' own  improvement.  And  that" — Reuben  sud 
denly  checked  himself,  and  looked  at  his  new  part 
ner  with  a  smile  of  wonderful  sweetness — "  that  is 
what  I  dream  of  trying  to  do.  And  you  are  going 
to  help  me  !  " 

He  rose  as  he  spoke,  and  Horace,  feeling  his  good 
impulses  fired  in  a  vague  way  by  his  companion's 
earnestness  and  confidence,  rose  also,  and  stretched 
out  his  hand. 

"  Be  sure  I  shall  do  all  I  can,"  he  said,  warmly,  as 
the  two  shook  hands. 

And  when  young  Mr.  Boyce  went  down  the 
narrow  stairway  by  himself,  a  few  minutes  later, 
having  arranged  that  the  partnership  was  to  begin 
on  the  approaching  1st  of  December,  he  really 
fancied  himself  as  a  public-spirited  reformer,  whose 
life  was  to  be  consecrated  to  noble  deeds.  He  was 
conscious  of  an  added  expansion  of  breast  as  he 
buttoned  his  fur  coat  across  it,  and  he  walked  down 
the  village  street  in  a  maze  of  proud  and  pleasant 
reflections  upon  his  own  admirable  qualities. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MR.    SCHUYLER   TENNEY. 

Two  or  three  weeks  after  the  new  sign  of  "Tracy 
&  Boyce  "  had  been  hung  upon  the  outer  walls  of 
Thessaly  it  happened  that  the  senior  partner  was 
out  of  town  for  the  day,  and  that  during  his  absence 
the  junior  partner  received  an  important  visit  from 
Mr.  Schuyler  Tenney.  Although  this  gentleman 
was  not  a  client,  his  talk  with  Horace  was  so  long 
and  interesting  that  the  young  lawyer  felt  justified 
in  denying  himself  to  several  callers  who  were 
clients. 

Mr.  Schuyler  Tenney,  who  has  a  considerable  part 
to  play  in  this  story,  did  not  upon  first  observa 
tions  reveal  any  special  title  to  prominence.  To 
the  cursory  glance,  he  looked  like  any  other  of  ten 
hundred  hundreds  of  young  Americans  who  are 
engaged  in  making  more  money  than  they  need.  I 
speak  of  him  as  young  because,  though  there  was  a 
thick  sprinkling  of  gray  in  his  closely  cut  hair,  and 
his  age  in  years  must  have  been  above  rather  than 
below  forty,  there  was  nothing  in  his  face  or  dress 
or  bearing  to  indicate  that  he  felt  himself  to  be  a 
day  older  than  his  companion.  He  was  a  slender 
man,  with  a  thin,  serious  face,  cold  gray  eyes,  and  a 


Ii6  The  Lawton  Girl. 

trim  drab  mustache.  Under  his  creaseless  overcoat 
he  wore  neat  gray  clothes,  of  uniform  pattern  and 
strictly  commercial  aspect.  He  spoke  with  a  quiet 
abruptness  of  speech  as  a  rule,  and  both  his  rare 
smiles  and  his  occasional  simulations  of  vivacity 
were  rather  obviously  artificial.  Meeting  Mr.  Schuy- 
ler  Tenney  for  even  the  first  time,  and  looking  him 
over,  you  would  not,  it  is  true,  have  been  surprised 
to  hear  that  he  had  just  planted  a  dubious  gold 
mine  on  the  confiding  English  capitalists,  or  made 
a  million  dollars  out  of  a  three-jointed  collar-button, 
or  calmly  cut  out  and  carried  off  a  railroad  from 
under  the  very  guns  of  the  Stock  Exchange.  If  his 
appearance  did  not  suggest  great  exploits  of  this 
kind,  it  did  not  deny  them  once  they  were  hinted 
by  others.  But  the  chance  statement  that  he  had 
privately  helped  somebody  at  his  own  cost  without 
hope  of  reward  would  have  given  you  a  distinct 
shock. 

At  the  present  moment,  Mr.  Tenney  was  publicly 
known  as  one  of  the  smartest  and  most  "  go-ahead" 
young  business  men  of  Thessaly.  Dim  rumors  were 
upon  the  air  that  he  was  really  something  more  than 
this  ;  but  as  the  commercial  agencies  had  long  ago 
given  him  their  feeble  "A  I  "  of  superlative  rating, 
and  nothing  definite  was  known  about  his  outside  in 
vestments,  these  reports  only  added  vaguely  to  his 
respectability.  He  was  the  visible  and  actual  head 
of  the  large  wholesale  hardware  house  of  "  S.  Ten 
ney  &  Co." 

This   establishment   had    before   the    war   borne 


Mr.   Schuyler  Tenney.  117 

another  name  on  the  big  sign  over  its  portals,  that 
of  "  Sylvanus  Boyce."  A  year  or  two  after  the  war 
closed  a  new  legend — "  Boyce  &  Co." — was  painted 
in.  Thus  it  remained  until  the  panic  of  1873,  when 
it  underwent  a  transformation  into  "  Boyce  &  Ten 
ney."  And  now  for  some  years  the  name  of  Boyce 
had  disappeared  altogether,  and  the  portly,  red- 
faced,  dignified  General  had  dwindled  more  and 
more  into  a  position  somewhere  between  the  head 
book-keeper  and  the  shipping-clerks.  He  was  still 
a  member  of  the  firm,  however,  and  it  was  appar 
ently  about  this  fact  that  Mr.  Tenney  had  come  to 
talk. 

He  took  a  seat  beside  Horace's  desk,  after  shak 
ing  hands  coldly  with  the  young  man,  and  said  with 
out  ceremony  : 

"  I  haven't  had  a  chance  before  to  see  you  alone. 
It  wouldn't  do  to  talk  over  at  the  store — your 
father's  in  and  out  all  the  while,  more  out  than  in, 
by  the  way — and  Tracy's  been  here  every  day  since 
you  joined  him." 

"  He's  out  of  town  to-day,"  remarked  Horace. 

"  So  I  heard.  That's  why  I  came  over.  Do  you 
know  that  your  father  has  overdrawn  his  income  ac 
count  by  nearly  eleven  thousand  dollars,  and  that  the 
wrong  side  of  his  book  hasn't  got  room  for  more 
than  another  year  or  so  of  that  sort  of  thing  ?  In 
fact,  it  wouldn't  last  that  long  if  I  wanted  to  be  sharp 
with  him." 

The  words  were  spoken  very  calmly,  but  they 
took  the  color  as  by  a  flash  from  Horace's  face.  He 


Ii8  The  Lawton  Girl. 

swung  his  chair  round,  and,  looking  Tenney  in  the 
eyes,  seemed  spell-bound  by  what  he  saw  there. 
The  gaze  was  sustained  between  the  two  men  until 
it  grew  to  be  like  the  experiment  of  two  school 
children  who  try  to  stare  each  other  down,  and 
under  its  strain  the  young  lawyer  felt  himself  put 
ting  forth  more  and  more  exertion  to  hold  his  own. 

"  I  thought  I  would  tell  you,"  added  the  hardware 
merchant,  settling  himself  back  in  the  chair  and 
crossing  his  thin  legs,  and  seemingly  finding  it  no 
effort  to  continue  looking  his  companion  out  of 
countenance.  "  Yes,  I  thought  you  ought  to  know. 
I  suppose  he  hasn't  said  anything  to  you  about 
it." 

"  Not  a  word,"  answered  Horace,  shifting  his 
glance  to  the  desk  before  him,  and  striving  with  all 
his  might  to  get  his  wits  under  control. 

"  That's  like  him.  The  last  thing  he  ever  wants 
to  talk  about  is  business,  least  of  all  his  own.  They 
tell  a  story  about  a  man  who  used  to  say,  '  Thank 
God,  that's  settled ! '  whenever  he  got  a  note  re 
newed.  He  must  have  been  a  relation  of  the  Gen 
eral's." 

"  It's  Sheridan  that  that's  ascribed  to,"  said  Hor 
ace,  for  the  sake  of  saying  something. 

"  What,  '  Little  Phil  '  ?  I  thought  he  had  more 
sense." 

There  was  something  in  this  display  of  ignorance 
which  gave  Horace  the  courage  to  face  his  visitor 
once  more.  He  turned  resolutely  toward  Teriney. 

"  Nobody  knows    better  than    you   do,"  he  said, 


Mr.  Schuyler   Tenney.  119 

finding  increased  self-control  with  every  word,  now 
that  the  first  excitement  was  over,  "that  a  great 
deal  of  money  has  been  made  in  that  firm  of  yours. 
I  shall  be  glad  to  investigate  the  conditions  under 
which  the  business  has  contrived  to  make  you  rich 
and  your  partner  poor." 

Mr.  Tenney  seemed  disagreeably  surprised  at  this 
tone.  "  Don't  talk  nonsense,"  he  said  with  passing 
asperity.  "  Of  course  you're  welcome.  The  books 
are  open  to  you.  If  a  man  makes  four  thousand 
dollars  and  spends  seven  thousand  dollars,  what  on 
earth  has  his  partner's  affairs  to  do  with  it  ?  I  live 
within  my  income  and  attend  to  my  business,  and  he 
doesn't  do  either.  That's  the  long  and  short  of  it." 

The  two  men  talked  together  on  this  subject  for 
a  considerable  time,  Horace  alternating  between  ex 
pressions  of  indignation  at  the  fact  that  his  father 
had  become  the  unedifying  tail  of  a  concern  of  which 
he  once  was  everything,  and  more  or  less  ingenious 
efforts  to  discover  what  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  if 
any,  was  offered.  Mr.  Tenney  remained  unmoved 
under  both,  and  at  last  coolly  quitted  the  topic  al 
together. 

"  You  ought  to  do  well  here,"  he  said,  ignoring 
a  point-blank  question  about  how  General  Boyce's 
remaining  interest  could  be  protected.  "  Thessaly's 
going  to  have  a  regular  boom  before  long.  You'll 
see  this  place  a  city  in  another  year  or  two.  We've 
got  population  enough  now,  for  that  matter,  only  it's 
spread  out  so.  How  did  you  come  to  go  in  with 
Tracy?" 


I2O  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Why  shouldn't  I  ?  He's  the  best  man  here,  and 
starting  alone  is  the  slowest  kind  of  slow  work." 

Mr.  Tenney  smiled  a  little,  and  put  the  tips  of  his 
fingers  together  gently. 

"  Tracy  and  I  don't  hitch  very  well,  you  know," 
he  said.  "  I  took  a  downright  fancy  to  him  when  I 
first  came  in  from  Sidon  Hill,  but  he's  such  a  curi 
ous,  touchy  sort  of  fellow.  I  asked  him  one  day 
what  church  he'd  recommend  me  to  join  ;  of  course 
I  was  a  stranger,  and  explained  to  him  that  what  I 
wanted  was  not  to  make  any  mistake,  but  to  get 
into  the  church  where  there  were  the  most  respect 
able  people  who  would  be  of  use  to  me  ;  and  what 
do  you  think  he  said  ?  He  was  huffed  about  it — 
actually  mad  !  He  said  he'd  rather  have  given  me 
a  hundred  dollars  than  had  me  ask  him  that  ques 
tion  ;  and  after  that  he  was  cool,  and  so  was  I,  and 
we've  never  had  much  to  say  to  each  other  since 
then.  Of  course,  there's  no  quarrel,  you  know. 
Only  it  strikes  me  he'll  be  a  queer  sort  of  man  to 
get  along  with.  A  lawyer  with  cranks  like  that — - 
why,  you  never  know  what  he'll  do  next." 

"  He's  one  of  the  best  fellows  alive,"  said  Horace, 
with  sharp  emphasis. 

"  Why,  of  course  he  is,"  replied  Mr.  Tenney.  "  But 
that  isn't  business.  Take  the  General,  for  instance ; 
he's  a  good  fellow,  too — in  a  different  kind  of  way,  of 
course — and  see  where  it's  landed  him.  The  best 
fellow  is  No.  i.  Look  out  for  him  and  you  are  all 
right.  Tracy  might  be  making  five  or  six  times  as 
much  as  he  is,  if  he  went  the  right  way  to  work.  He 


Mr.  Schuyler   Tenney.  121 

does  more  business  and  gets  less  for  it  than  any 
other  lawyer  in  town.  There's  no  sense  in  that." 

"  Upon  my  word,  Mr.  Tenney,"  said  Horace,  after 
a  moment's  pause,  in  which  he  deliberately  framed 
what  he  was  going  to  say,  "  I  find  it  difficult  to  under 
stand  why  you  thought  it  worth  while  to  come  here 
at  all  to-day  :  it  surely  wasn't  to  talk  about  Tracy ; 
and  the  things  I  want  to  know  about  my  father  you 
won't  discuss.  What  do  you  want,  anyway  ?  Wait 
a  moment,  let  me  finish.  What  I  see  is  this  :  that 
you  were  a  private  in  the  regiment  my  father  was 
colonel  of  ;  that  he  made  you  a  sort  of  adjutant,  or 
something  in  the  nature  of  a  clerk,  and  so  lifted  you 
out  of  the  ranks  ;  that  during  the  war,  when  your 
health  failed,  he  gave  you  a  place  in  his  business 
here  at  home,  which  lifted  you  out  of  the  farm  ; 
that  a  while  later  he  made  you  a  partner  ;  and  that 
gradually  the  tables  have  been  completely  turned, 
until  you  are  the  colonel  and  he  is  the  private,  you 
are  rich  and  he  is  nearly  insolvent.  That  is  what 
the  thing  sums  up  to  in  my  mind.  What  is  your 
view  of  it?  He  was  good  to  you.  Have  you  come 
to  tell  me  that  now  you  are  going  to  be  good  to 
him  ?  " 

"  Good  God  !  Haven't  I  been  good  to  him  ?  "  said 
Tenney,  with  real  indignation.  "  Couldn't  I  have 
frozen  him  out  eighteen  months  ago  instead  of  taking 
up  his  overdrafts  at  only  ten  per  cent,  charge  so  as  to 
keep  him  along?  There  isn't  one  man  in  a  hundred 
who  would  have  done  for  him  what  I  have." 

"  I  am   glad   to   hear  it,"  replied   the  young  man. 


122  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  If  the  proportion  was  much  larger,  I  am  afraid  this 
would  be  a  very  unhappy  world  to  live  in." 

Mr.  Tenney  eyed  the  lawyer  doubtfully.  He  had 
not  clearly  grasped  the  meaning  of  this  remark,  but 
instinct  told  him  that  it  was  hostile. 

"  All  right !  You  may  take  it  that  way,  if  you 
like."  He  rose  as  he  spoke  and  began  buttoning  his 
overcoat.  "  Only  let  me  say  this  :  when  the  smash 
comes,  you  can't  say  I  didn't  warn  you.  If  you 
won't  listen  to  me,  that's  your  lookout.  " 

"  But  I  haven't  done  anything  but  listen  to  you 
for  the  last  two  hours,"  said  Horace,  who  longed  to 
tell  his  visitor  to  go  to  the  devil,  and  yet  was  betrayed 
into  signs  of  anxiety  at  the  prospect  of  his  depart 
ure.  "  If  you'll  remember,  you  haven't  told  me 
anything  that  I  asked  for.  Heaven  knows,  I  should 
be  only  too  glad  to  listen,  if  you've  got  anything 
to  say." 

Mr.  Tenney  made  a  smiling  movement  with  his 
thin  lips  and  sat  down  again. 

"  I  thought  you  would  change  your  tune,"  he 
said,  calmly.  Horace  offered  a  gesture  of  dissent, 
to  which  the  hardware  merchant  paid  no  attention. 
He  had  measured  his  man,  and  decided  upon  a 
system  of  treatment.  "  What  I  really  wanted,"  he 
continued,  "  was  to  look  you  over  and  hear  you  talk, 
and  kind  of  walk  around  you  and  size  you  up,  so  to 
speak.  You  see  I've  only  known  you  as  a  youngster 
• — better  at  spending  money  than  at  making  it.  Now 
that  you've  started  as  a  lawyer,  I  thought  I'd  take 
stock  of  you  again,  don't  you  see ;  and  the  best 


Mr.  Schuyler   Tenney.  123 

way  to  sound  you  all  around  was  to  talk  about  your 
father's  affairs." 

Horace  was  conscious  of  a  temptation  to  be  angry 
at  this  cool  statement,  but  he  did  not  yield  to  it. 
"  Then  it  isn't  true — what  you  have  told  me  ?  "  he 
asked. 

"  Well,  yes,  it  is,  mostly,"  answered  Mr.  Tenney, 
again  contemplating  his  joined  finger-tips.  "  But  it 
isn't  of  so  much  importance  compared  with  some 
other  things.  There's  bigger  game  afoot  than  part 
nerships  in  hardware  stores." 

Horace  gave  a  little  laugh  of  mingled  irritation 
and  curiosity.  "  What  the  devil  are  you  driving  at, 
Tenney  ?  "  he  said,  and  swung  his  chair  once  more  to 
face  his  visitor. 

This  time  the  two  men  eyed  each  other  more 
sympathetically,  and  the  tones  of  the  two  voices 
lost  something  of  their  previous  reserve.  Mr.  Ten 
ney  himself  resumed  the  conversation  with  an  air  of 
direct  candor  : 

"  I  heard  somebody  say  you  rather  counted  on 
getting  some  of  the  Minster  iron-works  business." 

"Well,  the  fact  is,  I  may  have  said  I  hoped  to, 
but  nothing  definite  has  been  settled.  The  ladies 
are  friends  of  mine :  we  came  up  from  New  York  to 
gether  last  month  ;  but  nothing  was  decided." 

"  I  see,"  said  Mr.  Tenney,  and  Horace  felt  uneasily, 
as  he  looked  into  those  sharp  gray  eyes,  that  no  doubt 
they  did  see  very  clearly.  "You  were  just  gassing. 
I  thought  as  much.  There's  no  harm  in  that,  only 
it's  no  good  to  gas  with  me,  for  there's  some  solid 


124  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

business  to  be  done — something  mighty  promising 
for  both  of  us." 

"  Of  course  I've  no  notion  what  you  mean,"  said 
Horace.  "  But  it's  just  as  well  to  clear  up  the  ground 
as  we  go  along.  The  first  experiment  of  yoking 
up  Boyces  and  Tenneys  together  hasn't  turned  out 
so  admirably  as  to  warrant  me—  What  shall  I 
say?  " 

"  As  to  warrant  you  going  in  with  your  eyes  shut." 
Mr.  Tenney  supplied  the  lacking  phrase  with  evi 
dent  enjoyment.  "  Not  at  all,  Mr.  Boyce.  On  the 
contrary,  what  I  want  of  you  is  to  have  your  eyes 
peeled  particularly  wide  open.  But,  first  of  all,  Tracy 
mustn't  hear  a  breath  of  this  whole  thing." 

"  Then  go  no  further,  I  beg  of  you.  I  sha'n't 
touch  it." 

"  Oh,  yes,  you  will,"  said  Mr.  Tenney,  briskly  and 
with  confidence.  "  He  has  his  own  private  business. 
Why  shouldn't  you  ?  The  railroad  work,  for  ex 
ample  :  you  don't  share  in  that.  That  is  his  own, 
and  quite  right,  too.  But  that  very  fact  leaves  you 
free,  doesn't  it,  to  go  into  speculations  on  your  own 
account?" 

"  Speculations — yes,  perhaps." 

"  No  '  perhaps  '  about  it ;  of  course  it  does.  At 
least,  you  can  hear  what  I  have  to  say  without  tell 
ing  him,  whether  you  go  into  the  thing  or  not ;  do 
you  promise  me  that?" 

"  I  don't  think  I  wish  to  promise  anything,"  said 
Horace,  doubtingly. 

"All  right!     If  you  won't  deal,  you  won't;  and  I 


Mr.  Schuyler  Tenney.  125 

must  protect  myself  my  own  way."  Mr.  Tenney 
did  not  rise  and  again  begin  buttoning  his  coat,  nor 
was  it,  indeed,  necessary.  There  had  been  menace 
enough  in  his  tone  to  effect  his  purpose. 

"  Very  well,  then,"  answered  Horace,  in  a  low 
voice  ;  "  if  you  insist,  I  promise." 

"  I  shall  know  within  half  an  hour  if  you  do  tell 
him,"  said  Mr.  Tenney,  in  his  most  affable  manner ; 
"but  of  course  you  won't." 

"  Of  course  I  won't !  "  snapped  Horace,  testily. 

"  All  right,  then.  So  far,  so  good.  The  first  thing, 
then,  is  to  put  the  affairs  of  the  Minster  women  into 
your  hands." 

Horace  took  his  feet  off  the  table,  and  looked  in 
fixed  surprise  at  his  father's  partner.  "  How — what 
do  you  mean  ?"  he  stammered  at  last,  realizing,  even 
as  he  spoke,  that  there  were  certain  strange  depths 
in  Mr.  Tenney's  eyes  which  had  been  dimly  apparent 
at  the  outset,  and  then  had  been  for  a  long  time 
veiled,  and  were  now  once  more  discernible.  "  How 
do  you  mean  ?" 

"  It  can  be  fixed,  as  easy  as  rolling  off  a  log. 
Old  Clarke  has  gone  to  Florida  for  his  health,  and 
there's  going  to  be  a  change  made.  A  word  from 
me  can  turn  the  whole  thing  over  to  you." 

"  A  word  from  you ! "  Horace  spoke  with  in 
credulity,  but  he  did  not  really  doubt.  There  was 
a  revelation  of  reserve  power  in  the  man's  glance 
that  fascinated  him. 

"  That's  what  I  said.  The  question  is  whether  I 
shall  speak  it  or  not." 


126  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  To  be  frank  with  you  " — Horace  smiled  a  little — 
"  I  hope  very  much  that  you  will." 

"  I  daresay.  But  have  you  got  the  nerve  for  it  ? 
— that's  the  point.  Can  you  keep  your  mouth  shut, 
and  your  head  clear,  and  will  you  follow  me  without 
kicking  or  blabbing?  That's  what  I  want  to  know." 

"And  that's  just  what  I  can't  tell  you.  I'm  not 
going  to  bind  myself  to  do  unknown  things."  Hor 
ace  said  this  bravely  enough,  but  the  shrewd,  listen 
ing  ear  understood  very  well  the  lurking  accent  of 
assent. 

"You  needn't  bind  yourself  to  anything,  except 
to  tell  Tracy  nothing  till  I  give  you  the  word,  and 
then  only  what  we  shall  agree  upon.  Of  course, 
later  on  he  will  have  to  know  something  about  it. 
But  leave  that  to  me.  And  mind,  mum's  the  word." 

Mr.  Tenney  rose  now,  not  tentatively,  but  as  one 
who  is  really  going.  Horace  sprang  to  his  feet  as 
well,  and  despite  the  other's  declaration  that  he 
was  pressed  for  time,  and  had  already  stayed  too 
long,  insisted  on  detaining  him. 

"  What  I  don't  understand  in  all  this,"  he  said, 
hurriedly — "  for  that  matter  the  whole  thing  is  a 
mystery — but  what  I  particularly  fail  to  see  is  your 
object  in  benefiting  me.  The  two  things  don't  hitch. 
You  tell  me  that  you  have  got  my  father  in  a  hole, 
and  then  you  offer  me  a  great  and  substantial  prize. 
I  don't  catch  the  sequence.  You  are  not  the  man 
to  do  things  for  nothing.  What  you  haven't  told 
me  is  what  there  is  in  this  affair  for  you." 

Mr.  Tenney  seemed  complimented  by  this  trit> 


Mr.   Schuyler   Tenney.  127 

ute  to  his  commercial  sense  and  single-mindedness. 
"  No,  I  haven't  told  you,"  he  said,  buttoning  his 
coat.  "  That'll  come  in  due  time.  All  you've  got  to 
do  meanwhile  is  to  keep  still,  and  to  take  the  thing 
when  it  comes  to  you.  Let  me  know  at  once,  and 
say  nothing  to  any  living  soul — least  of  all  Tracy — • 
until  you've  talked  with  me.  That  oughtn't  to  be 
hard." 

"And  suppose  I  don't  like  the  conditions?" 
"  Then  you  may  lump  them,"  said  Schuyler  Tern 
ney,  disclosing  his  small  teeth  again  in  a  half-smile, 
as  he  made  his  way  out. 


CHAPTER    XI. 
MRS.  MINSTER'S  NEW  LEGAL  ADVISER. 

SOME  two  weeks  later  Mr.  Horace  Boyce,  on  re 
turning  home  one  evening,  found  on  his  table  a  note 
which  had  been  delivered  during  the  day  by  a  ser 
vant.  It  was  from  Mrs.  Minster — "  Desideria  Min 
ster"  she  signed  herself — asking  him  to  call  upon  her 
the  following  afternoon.  The  young  man  read  the 
missive  over  and  over  again  by  the  lamplight,  and  if 
it  had  been  a  love-letter  from  the  daughter  instead 
of  the  polite  business  appointment  by  the  mother, 
his  eyes  couldn't  have  flashed  more  eagerly  as  he 
took  in  the  meaning  of  its  words. 

The  meaning  of  its  words!  He  thought  long 
upon  that,  ruminating  in  his  easy-chair  before  the 
fire  until  far  past  midnight,  until  the  dainty  little 
Japanese  saucer  at  his  side  was  heaped  up  with 
cigar  ashes,  and  the  air  was  heavy  with  smoke. 

Evidently  this  summons  was  directly  connected 
with  the  remarks  made  by  Tenney  a  fortnight  be 
fore.  He  had  said  the  Minster  business  should  come 
to  him,  and  here  it  was.  The  fact  that  Mrs.  Min 
ster  wrote  to  him  at  his  residence,  rather  than  at  his 
office,  was  proof  that  she  too  wished  to  have  him 
alone,  and  not  the  firm  of  Tracy  &  Boyce,  as  her 
adviser.  That  there  should  be  this  prejudice  against 


Mrs.  Minster  s  New  Legal  Adviser,         129 

Reuben,  momentarily  disturbed  the  young  man  ; 
but,  upon  examination,  he  found  it  easy  to  account 
for  it.  Reuben  was  very  nice — his  partner  even 
paused  for  a  moment  to  reflect  how  decent  a  fellow 
Reuben  really  was — but  then,  he  scarcely  belonged 
to  the  class  of  society  in  which  people  like  the 
Boyces  and  Minsters  moved.  Naturally  the  mil- 
lionnaire  widow,  belonging  as  she  did  to  an  ancient 
family  in  the  Hudson  River  valley,  and  bearing  the 
queer  name  of  a  grandmother  who  had  been  a  colo 
nial  beauty,  would  prefer  to  have  as  her  family 
lawyer  somebody  who  also  had  ancestors. 

The  invitation  had  its  notable  social  side,  too. 
There  was  no  good  in  blinking  the  fact  that  his 
father  the  General — who  had  effected  a  somewhat 
noisy  entrance  to  the  house  a  half-hour  ago,  and 
the  sound  of  whose  burdened  breathing  now  inter 
mittently  came  to  his  ears  in  the  silence  of  the 
night — had  allowed  the  family  status  to  lapse.  The 
Boyces  were  not  what  they  had  been.  In  the  course 
of  such  few  calls  as  he  had  made  since  his  return,  it 
had  been  impossible  for  him  not  to  detect  the  exist 
ence  of  a  certain  surprise  that  he  should  have  called 
at  all.  Everybody,  too,  had  taken  pains  to  avoid 
reference  to  his  father,  even  when  the  course  of  talk 
made  such  allusion  natural.  This  had  for  the  mo 
ment  angered  the  young  man,  and  later  had  not  a 
little  discouraged  him.  As  a  boy  he  had  felt  it  a 
great  thing  to  be  the  son  of  a  general,  and  to  find  it 
now  to  be  a  distinct  detriment  was  disheartening 
indeed.  But  this  black-bordered,  perfumed  note 
9 


130  The  Lawton  Girl. 

from  Mrs.  Minster  put  all,  as  by  the  sweep  of  a  hand, 
into  the  background.  Once  he  visited  that  proud 
household  as  a  friend,  once  he  looked  Thessaly  in 
the  face  as  the  confidential  adviser  of  the  Minster 
family,  the  Boyces  were  rehabilitated. 

To  dwell  upon  the  thought  was  very  pleasant,  for 
it  led  the  way  by  sweetly  vagrant  paths  to  dreams 
of  the  dark-eyed,  beautiful  Kate.  During  the  past 
month  these  visions  had  lost  color  and  form  under 
the  disconcerting  influences  just  spoken  of,  but  now 
they  became,  as  if  by  magic,  all  rosy-hued  and  defi 
nite  again.  He  had  planned  to  himself  on  that  first 
November  day  a  career  which  should  be  crowned  by 
marriage  with  the  lovely  daughter  of  the  millions, 
and  had  made  a  mental  march  around  the  walls  en 
compassing  her  to  spy  out  their  least  defended  point. 
Now,  all  at  once,  marvellous  as  it  seemed,  he  found 
himself  transported  within  the  battlements.  He  was 
to  be  her  mother's  lawyer — nay,  her  lawyer  as  well, 
and  to  his  sanguine  fancy  this  meant  everything. 

Everything  ?  The  word  seemed  feeble.  It  meant 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  he  had  ever  seen 
as  his  wife — a  lady  well-born,  delicately  nurtured, 
clever,  and  good  ;  it  meant  vast  wealth,  untold  wealth, 
with  which  to  be  not  only  the  principal  personage 
of  these  provincial  parts,  but  a  great  figure  in  New 
York  or  Washington  or  Europe.  He  might  be  sen 
ator  in  Congress,  minister  to  Paris,  or  even  aspire 
to  the  towering,  solitary  eminence  of  the  Presidency 
itself  with  the  backing  of  these  millions.  It  meant 
a  yacht,  the  very  dream  of  sea-going  luxury  and 


Mrs.  Minster  s  New  Legal  Adviser,         131 

speed,  in  which  to  bask  under  Hawaiian  skies,  to 
loiter  lazily  along  the  topaz  shores  of  far  Cathay, 
to  flit  to  and  fro  between  spice  lands  and  cold  north 
ern  seas,  the  whole  watery  globe  subject  to  her  keel. 
Why,  there  could  be  a  castle  on  the  Moselle,  a  coun 
try  house  in  Devonshire,  a  flat  in  Paris,  a  villa  at 
Mentone,  a  summer  island  home  on  the  St.  Law 
rence,  a  mansion  in  New  York — all  together,  if  he 
liked,  or  as  many  as  pleased  his  whim.  It  might  be 
worth  the  while  to  lease  a  shooting  in  Scotland, 
only  the  mischief  was  that  badly  bred  Americans, 
the  odious  nouveaux  riches,  had  rather  discredited 
the  national  name  in  the  Highlands. 

So  the  young  man's  fancies  floated  on  the  wreaths 
of  scented  smoke  till  at  last  he  yawned  in  spite  of 
himself,  sated  with  the  contemplation  of  the  gifts 
the  gods  had  brought  him.  He  read  Mrs.  Minster's 
note  once  again  before  he  went  to  bed,  and  sleep 
overtook  his  brain  while  it  was  still  pleasantly  mus 
ing  on  the  choicest  methods  of  expending  the  in 
come  of  her  millions. 

Curiously  enough,  during  all  these  hours  of  happy 
castle-building,  the  question  of  why  SchuylerTenney 
had  interested  himself  in  the  young  man's  fortunes 
never  once  crossed  that  young  man's  mind.  To  be 
frank,  the  pictures  he  painted  were  all  of  "  gentle 
men  "  and  "ladies,"  and  his  father's  partner,  though 
his  help  might  be  of  great  assistance  at  the  outset, 
could  scarcely  expect  to  mingle  in  such  company, 
even  in  Horace's  tobacco  reveries. 

Neither  to  his  father  at  the  breakfast-table,  nor  to 


132  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Reuben  Tracy  at  the  office,  did  young  Mr.  Boyce 
next  day  mention  the  fact  that  he  was  to  call  on  Mrs. 
Minster.  This  enforced  silence  was  not  much  to  his 
liking,  primarily  because  his  temperament  was  the 
reverse  of  secretive.  When  he  had  done  anything 
or  thought  of  doing  something,  the  impulse  to  tell 
about  it  was  always  strong  upon  him.  The  fact  that 
the  desire  to  talk  was  not  rigorously  balanced  by 
regard  for  the  exact  and  prosaic  truth  may  not  have 
been  an  essential  part  of  the  trait  when  we  come  to 
analysis,  but  garrulity  and  exaggeration  ran  together 
in  Horace's  nature.  To  repress  them  now,  just  at 
the  time  when  the  most  important  event  of  his  life 
impended,  required  a  good  deal  of  effort. 

He  had  some  qualms  of  conscience,  too,  so  far  as 
Reuben  was  concerned.  Two  or  three  things  had 
happened  within  the  past  week  which  had  laid  him 
under  special  obligation  to  the  courtesy  and  good 
feeling  of  his  partner.  They  were  not  important,  per 
haps,  but  still  the  memory  of  them  weighed  upon  his 
mind  when,  at  three  o'clock,  he  put  on  his  coat  and 
explained  that  he  might  not  be  back  again  that  after 
noon.  Reuben  nodded,  and  said,  "  All  right:  I  shall 
be  here.  If  so-and-so  comes,  I'll  go  over  the  matter 
and  make  notes  for  you."  Then  Horace  longed  very 
much  to  tell  all  about  the  Minster  summons  and  the 
rest,  and  this  longing  arose  as  much  from  a  wish  to 
be  frank  and  fair  as  from  a  craving  to  confide  his 
secret  to  somebody;  but  he  only  hesitated  for  a  sec 
ond,  and  then  went  out. 

Mrs.  Minster  received   him  in  the  chamber  which 


Mrs.  Minster  s  New  Legal  Adviser.         133 

had  been  her  husband's  working  room,  and  which 
still  contained  his  desk,  although  it  had  since  been 
furnished  with  book-shelves  and  was  called  the 
library.  Horace  noted,  as  the  widow  rose  to  greet 
him,  that,  though  the  desk  was  open,  its  pigeon-holes 
did  not  seem  to  contain  many  papers. 

After  his  hostess  had  bidden  him  to  be  seated,  and 
had  spoken  in  mildly  deprecating  tones  about  the 
weather,  she  closed  her  resolutely  lined  lips,  folded 
her  hands  in  her  lap,  and  looked  at  him  in  amiable 
suspense.  As  has  been  said  before,  Mrs.  Minster's 
dark  face,  with  its  high  frame  of  white  hair  and  its 
bright  black  eyes,  habitually  produced  an  impression 
of  great  cleverness  and  alert  insight,  and  Horace  was 
conscious  of  embarrassment  in  finding  the  task  of 
conversation  devolved  upon  himself.  He  took  up 
the  burden,  however,  and  carried  it  along  from  sub 
ject  to  subject  until  at  last  it  seemed  fitting  to  broach 
the  great  topic. 

"  I  didn't  get  your  note  until  evening,"  he  said, 
with  a  polite  inquiring  smile. 

"  No,  I  didn't  send  it  until  after  dinner,"  she  re-, 
plied,  and  a  pause  ensued. 

It  fortunately  occurred  to  Horace  to  say  he  was 
very  glad  to  have  her  call  upon  him  always,  if  in  any 
way  she  saw  how  he  could  serve  her.  As  he  spoke 
these  words,  he  felt  that  they  were  discreet  and  non 
committal,  and  yet  must  force  her  to  come  to  the 
point.  And  they  did,  after  a  fashion. 

"  It  is  very  kind  of  you,  I'm  sure,"  she  said,  gra 
ciously,  and  came  to  a  full  stop. 


134  The  Lawton  GirL 

"  If  there  is  anything  I  can  do  now,"  Horace  re 
marked  tentatively. 

"  Well — oh  yes  !  What  I  wanted  to  ask  you  was, 
do  you  know  the  Wendovers?" 

"  I  don't  think  I  do/'  murmured  the  young  man, 
with  a  great  sinking  of  the  heart. 

"They're  New  York  people,"  the  lady  explained. 

"  I  know  almost  nobody  in  New  York,"  answered 
Horace  gloomily.  "Wendover?  No,  I  am  quite 
sure  the  name  is  new  to  me." 

"That  is  curious,"  said  Mrs.  Minster.  She  took 
a  letter  up  from  the  desk.  "  This  is  from  Judge 
Wendover,  and  it  mentions  you.  I  gathered  from 
it  that  he  knew  you  quite  well." 

Oh,  shades  of  the  lies  that  might  have  been  told, 
if  one  had  only  known  ! 

Horace  swiftly  ransacked  his  brain  for  a  way  out 
of  this  dilemma.  Evidently  this  letter  bore  upon 
his  selection  as  her  lawyer.  He  guessed  rightly  that 
it  had  been  written  at  Tenney's  'suggestion  and  by 
some  one  who  had  Mrs.  Minster's  confidence.  Obvi 
ously  this  some  one  was  of  the  legal  profession. 
That  was  his  cue. 

"The  name  does  sound  familiar,  on  second 
thought,"  he  said.  "  I  daresay  it  is,  if  I  could  only 
place  it.  You  see,  I  had  a  number  of  offers  to  enter 
legal  firms  in  New  York,  and  in  that  way  I  saw  a 
good  many  people  for  a  few  minutes,  you  know,  and 
quite  probably  I've  forgotten  some  of  their  names. 
They  would  remember  me,  of  course,  but  I  might 
confuse  them  one  with  another,  don't  you  see  ? 


Mrs.  Minster  s  New  Legal  Adviser.         135 

Strange,  I  don't  fix  the  man  you  mean.  Was  he  a 
middle-aged  man,  grayish  hair,  well  dressed  ?  " 

"  Yes,  that  describes  him."  She  did  not  add  that 
it  would  equally  describe  seven  out  of  every  ten 
other  men  called  "judge"  throughout  the  United 
States. 

"  Now  I  place  him,"  said  Horace  triumphantly. 
"  There  was  some  talk  of  my  going  into  his  office  as 
a  junior  partner.  Mutual  friends  of  ours  proposed 
it,  I  remember.  But  it  didn't  attract  me.  Curious 
that  I  should  have  forgotten  his  name.  One's  mem 
ory  plays  such  whimsical  tricks,  though." 

"  I  didn't  know  Judge  Wendover  was  practising 
law,"  said  Mrs.  Minster.  "  He  never  was  much  of  a 
lawyer.  He  was  county  judge  once  down  in  Peeks- 
kill,  about  the  time  I  was  married,  but  he  didn't  get 
reflected  ;  and  I  thought  he  gave  it  all  up  when  he 
went  to  New  York." 

"  If  it's  the  man  I  mean,"  put  in  Horace,  groping 
his  way  despairingly,  "  there  wasn't  much  business 
in  his  office.  That  is  why  I  didn't  go  in,  I  daresay  : 
it  wouldn't  be  worth  my  while  unless  he  himself  was 
devoted  to  the  law,  and  carried  on  a  big  practice." 

"  I  daresay  it's  the  same  man,"  remarked  Mrs. 
Minster.  "  He  probably  would  have  a  kind  of  law 
office.  They  generally  do." 

"  Well,  may  I  ask,"  Horace  ventured  after  another 
pause,  "  in  what  connection  he  mentions  my  name?" 

"  He  recommends  me  to  consult  you  about  affairs 
—to — well,  how  shall  I  say  it  ? — to  make  you  my 
lawyer  ?  " 


136  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Eureka  !  The  words  were  out,  and  the  difficult 
passage  about  Judge  What's-his-name  was  left  safely 
behind.  Horace  felt  his  brain  swimming  on  a  sea 
of  exaltation,  but  he  kept  his  face  immobile,  and 
bowed  his  head  with  gravity. 

"  I  am  very  young  for  so  serious  a  responsibility, 
I'm  afraid,"  he  said  modestly. 

The  .widow  reassured  him  with  a  smile.  "  There 
isn't  really  much  to  do,"  she  answered.  "  And  some 
body  would  have  to  learn  what  there  is  ;  and  you 
can  do  that  as  well  as  any  one  else,  better  than  a 
stranger.  The  difficulty  is,"  she  spoke  more  slowly, 
and  Horace  listened  with  all  his  ears:  "you  have  a 
partner,  I'm  told." 

The  young  man  did  not  hesitate  for  an  instant. 
"  Only  in  a  limited  way,"  he  replied.  "  Mr.  Tracy 
and  I  have  combined  on  certain  lines  of  work  where 
two  heads  are  better  than  one,  but  we  each  keep  dis 
tinct  our  own  private  practice.  It  is  much  better." 

"  I  certainly  prefer  it,"  said  Mrs.  Minster.  "I  am 
glad  to  hear  you  keep  separate.  I  do  not  know  Mr. 
Tracy,  and,  indeed,  he  is  very  highly  spoken  of  as  a 
lawyer ;  but  certain  things  I  have  heard — social 
matters,  I  mean — " 

The  lady  broke  off  discreetly.  She  could  not  tell 
this  young  man  what  she  had  heard  about  that  visit 
to  the  Lawton  house.  Horace  listened  to  her  with 
out  the  remotest  notion  of  her  meaning,  and  so 
could  only  smile  faintly  and  give  the  least  suggestion 
of  a  sigh.  Clearly  he  must  throw  Reuben  overboard. 

"  We  can't  have  everything  in   this  world  just  to 


Mrs.  Minster  s  New  Legal  Adviser.         137 

our  minds,"  he  said  judicially,  and  it  seemed  to  him 
to  cover  the  case  with  prudent  vagueness. 

"  I  suppose  you  thought  the  partnership  would 
be  a  good  thing?"  she  asked. 

"At  the  time — yes,"  answered  Horace.  "And,  to 
be  fair,  it  really  has  some  advantages.  Mr.  Tracy  is 
a  prodigious  worker,  for  one  thing,  and  he  is  very 
even-tempered  and  willing ;  so  that  the  burden  of 
details  is  taken  off  my  shoulders  to  a  great  extent, 
and  that  disposes  one  to  overlook  a  good  many 
things,  you  know." 

Mrs.  Minster  nodded  appreciation.  She  also  knew 
what  it  was  to  delight  in  relief  from  the  burden  of 
details,  and  she  said  to  herself  that  fortunately  Mr. 
Boyce  would  thus  have  the  more  leisure  to  devote 
to  the  affairs  of  the  Minsters. 

Into  their  further  talk  it  is  not  needful  to  pursue 
the  lady  and  her  lawyer.  She  spoke  only  in  general 
terms,  outlining  her  interests  and  investments  which 
required  attention,  and  vaguely  defining  what  she 
expected  him  to  do.  Horace  listened  very  closely, 
but  beyond  a  nebulous  comprehension  of  the  exist 
ence  of  a  big  company  and  a  little  company,  which 
together  controlled  the  iron-works  and  its  appurte 
nances,  he  learned  next  to  nothing.  One  of  the  first 
things  which  she  desired  of  Horace  was,  however, 
that  he  should  go  to  Florida  and  talk  the  whole 
subject  over  with  Mr.  Clarke,  and  to  this  he  gladly 
assented. 

"  I  will  write  to  him  that  you  are  coming,"  she 
said,  as  she  rose.  "  I  may  tell  you  that  he  person- 


138  The  Lawton  Girl. 

ally  preferred  Mr.  Tracy  as  his  successor ;  but,  as  I 
have  told  you — well,  there  were  reasons  why — " 

Horace  made  haste  to  bow  and  say  "  quite  so," 
and  thus  spare  Mrs.  Minster  the  trouble  of  explana 
tions.  "  Perhaps  it  will  be  better  to  say  nothing 
to  any  one  until  I  have  returned  from  Florida," 
he  added,  as  a  parting  suggestion,  and  it  had  her 
assent. 

The  young  man  walked  buoyantly  down  the 
gravel  path  and  along  the  streets,  his  veins  fairly 
tingling  with  excitement  and  joy.  The  great  prize 
had  come  to  him — wealth,  honor,  fame,  were  all 
within  his  grasp.  He  thought  proudly,  as  he  strode 
along,  of  what  he  would  do  after  his  marriage.  Even 
the  idea  of  hyphenating  the  two  names  in  the  Eng 
lish  fashion,  Minster-Boyce,  came  into  his  mind,  and 
was  made  welcome.  Perhaps,  though,  it  couldn't 
well  be  done  until  his  father  was  dead  ;  and  that  re 
minded  him — he  really  must  speak  to  the  General 
about  his  loose  behavior. 

Thus  Horace  exultantly  communed  with  his  happy 
self,  and  formed  resolutions,  dreamed  dreams,  dis 
cussed  radiant  probabilities  as  he  walked,  until  his 
abstracted  eye  was  suddenly,  insensibly  arrested  by 
the  sight  of  a  familiar  sign  across  the  street — "  S. 
Tenney  &  Co."  Then  for  the  first  time  he  remem 
bered  his  promise,  and  the  air  grew  colder  about 
him  as  he  recalled  it.  He  crossed  the  road  after 
a  moment's  hesitation,  and  entered  the  hardware 
store. 

Mr.  Tenney   was   alone   in  the   little   office   parti- 


Mrs.  Minster's  New  Legal  Adviser.          139 

tioned  off  by  wood  and  glass  from  the  open  store. 
He  received  the  account  given  by  Horace  of  his 
visit  to  the  Minster  mansion  with  no  indication  of 
surprise,  and  with  no  outward  sign  of  satisfaction. 

"  So  far,  so  good,"  he  said,  briefly.  Then,  after  a 
moment's  meditation,  he  looked  up  sharply  in  the 
face  of  the  young  man,  who  was  still  standing : 
"  Did  you  say  anything  about  your  terms  ?  " 

"  Of  course  not.  How  could  I  ?  You  don't  show 
price-lists  like  a  storekeeper,  in  the  law  !  " 

Mr.  Tenney  smiled  just  a  little  at  Horace's 
haughty  tone — a  smile  of  furtive  amusement.  "  It's 
just  as  well,"  he  said.  "  I'll  talk  with  you  about 
that  later.  The  old  lady's  rather  close-fisted.  We 
may  make  a  point  there — by  sending  in  bills  much 
smaller  than  old  Clarke's  used  to  be.  I  ought  to 
have  told  you  about  that.  Luckily  it  wasn't 
needed." 

The  matter-of-fact  way  in  which  Mr.  Tenney  used 
this  "we"  grated  disagreeably  on  the  young  man's 
ear,  suggesting  as  it  did  a  new  partnership  uncom 
fortably  vague  in  form  ;  but  he  deemed  it  wise  not 
to  touch  upon  the  subject.  His  next  question,  as 
to  the  identity  of  Judge  Wendover,  brought  upon 
the  stage,  however,  still  a  third  partner  in  the 
shadowy  firm  to  which  he  had  committed  himself. 

"  Oh,  Wendover's  in  with  us.  He's  all  right,"  re 
plied  Schuyler  Tenney,  lightly.  "  Never  heard  of 
him,  eh  ?  He's  the  president  of  the  Thessaly  Man 
ufacturing  Company.  You'll  hear  a  good  deal  about 
that  later  on."  The  speaker  showed  his  teeth  again 


140  The  Lawton  Girl. 

by  a  smiling  movement  of  the  lips  at  this  assurance, 
and  Horace  somehow  felt  his  uneasiness  growing. 

11  She  wants  me  to  go  to  Florida  to  see  Clarke, 
and  talk  things  over,"  he  said. 

"  Just  so.  That's  important.  We  must  consider 
all  that  very  carefully  before  you  go.  Clarke  re 
quires  handling.  Leave  that  to  me.  I'll  think  out 
what  you  are  to  tell  him." 

Horace  was  momentarily  shrinking  in  importance 
before  his  own  mental  vision  ;  and,  though  he  re 
sented  it,  he  could  not  but  submit.  "  I  suppose  I'd 
better  make  some  other  excuse  to  Tracy  about  the 
Florida  trip,"  he  said,  almost  deferentially ;  "what 
do  you  think  ?  " 

"Oh,  you  think  so,  do  you?"  Mr.  Tenney  was 
interested,  and  made  a  renewed  scrutiny  of  the 
young  man's  face.  "  Perhaps.  I'll  think  about  it, 
and  let  you  know  to-morrow.  Look  in  about  this 
time,  and  don't  say  anything  till  then.  So  long!" 

Thus  dismissed,  Horace  took  his  leave,  and  it  was 
not  until  he  had  nearly  reached  his  home  that  the 
thoughts  chasing  each  other  in  his  mind  began  to 
take  on  once  more  roseate  hues  and  hopeful  out 
lines. 

Mr.  Tenney  watched  his  partner's  son  through 
the  partition  until  he  was  out  of  sight,  and  then 
smiled  at  the  papers  on  his  desk  in  confidence. 
"  He's  ready  to  lie  at  a  minute's  notice,"  he  mused; 
"  offered  on  his  own  hook  to  lie  to  Tracy.  That's 
all  right — only  he  mustn't  try  it  on  with  me  !  " 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    THESSALY    CITIZENS'    CLUB. 

THE  village  of  Thessaly  took  no  pains  to  conceal 
the  fact  that  it  was  very  proud  of  itself.  What  is 
perhaps  more  unique  is  that  the  farming  people 
round  about,  and  even  the  smaller  and  rival  hamlets 
scattered  through  the  section,  cordially  recognized 
Thessaly's  right  to  be  proud,  and  had  a  certain  satis 
faction  in  themselves  sharing  that  pride. 

Lest  this  should  breed  misconception  and  paint  a 
more  halcyon  picture  of  these  minor  communities 
than  is  deserved,  let  it  be  explained  that  they  were 
not  without  their  vehement  jealousies  and  bickerings 
among  one  another.  Often  there  arose  between  them 
sore  contentions  over  questions  of  tax  equalization 
and  over  political  neglects  and  intrigues  ;  and  here, 
too,  there  existed,  in  generous  measure,  those  queer 
parochial  prejudices — based  upon  no  question  what 
ever,  and  defying  alike  inquiry  and  explanation — 
which  are  so  curious  a  heritage  from  the  childhood 
days  of  the  race.  No  long-toed  brachycephalous 
cave-dweller  of  the  stone  age  could  have  disliked  the 
stranger  who  hibernated  in  the  holes  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river  more  heartily  than  the  people  of 
Octavius  disliked  those  of  Sidon.  In  the  hop-picking 


142  The  Lawton  Girl. 

season  the  young  men  of  these  two  townships  always 
fell  to  fighting  when  they  met,  and  their  pitched  con 
flicts  in  and  around  the  Half-way  House  near  Tyre, 
when  dances  were  given  there  in  the  winter,  were 
things  to  talk  about  straight  through  until  hoeing  had 
begun  in  the  spring.  There  were  many  other  of  these 
odd  and  inexplicable  aversions — as,  for  instance,  that 
which  had  for  many  years  impelled  every  farmer 
along  the  whole  length  of  the  Nedahma  Creek  road 
to  vote  against  any  and  all  candidates  nominated 
from  Juno  Mills,  a  place  which  they  scarcely  knew 
and  had  no  earthly  reason  for  disliking.  But  in 
such  cases  no  one  asked  for  reasons.  Matters  simply 
stood  that  way,  and  there  was  nothing  more  to  be 
said. 

But  everybody  was  proud  of  Thessaly.  Neighbors 
took  almost  as  much  pleasure  in  boasting  of  its  wealth 
and  activity,  and  prophesying  its  future  greatness,  as 
did  its  own  sons.  The  farmers  when  they  came  in 
gazed  with  gratified  amazement  at  the  new  ware 
houses,  the  new  chimneys,  the  new  factory  walls  that 
were  rising  everywhere  about  them,  and  returned 
more  satisfied  than  ever  that  "  Thessaly  was  just 
a-humming  along."  Dearborn  County  had  always 
heretofore  been  a  strictly  agricultural  district,  full  of 
rich  farm-lands  and  well-to-do  farm-owners,  and  cele 
brated  in  the  markets  of  New  York  for  the  excellence 
of  its  dairy  products.  Now  it  seemed  certain  that 
Thessaly  would  soon  be  a  city,  and  it  was  already  a 
subject  for  congratulation  that  the  industries  which 
were  rooting,  sprouting,  or  bearing  fruit  there  had 


The   Thessaly  Citizens'   Club.  143 

given  Dearborn  County  a  place  among  the  dozen 
foremost  manufacturing  shires  in  the  State. 

The  farmers  were  as  pleased  over  this  as  any  one 
else.  It  was  true  that  they  were  growing  poorer 
year  by  year  ;  that  their  lands  were  gradually  becom 
ing  covered  with  a  parchment  film  of  mortgages, 
more  deadly  than  sorrel  or  the  dreaded  black-moss  ; 
that  the  prices  of  produce  had  gone  down  on  the  one 
hand  as  much  as  the  cost  of  living  and  of  labor  had 
risen  on  the  other  ;  that  a  rich  farmer  had  become  a 
rarity  in  a  district  which  once  was  controlled  by  the 
princes  of  herds  and  waving  fields  :  but  all  the  same 
the  agriculturists  of  Dearborn  County  were  proud 
of  Thessaly,  of  its  crowds  of  foreign-born  operatives, 
its  smoke-capped  chimneys,  and  its  noisy  bustle. 
They  marched  almost  solidly  to  the  polls  to  vote 
for  the  laws  which  were  supposed  to  protect  its  in 
dustries,  and  they  consoled  themselves  for  falling 
incomes  and  increased  expenditure  by  roseate  pic 
tures  of  the  great  "home  market  "which  Thessaly 
was  to  create  for  them  when  it  became  a  city. 

The  village  had  once  been  very  slow  indeed.  For 
many  years  it  had  been  scarcely  known  to  the  outside 
world  save  as  the  seat  of  a  seminary  of  something  more 
than  local  repute.  This  institution  still  nestled  under 
the  brow  of  the  hill  whence  the  boy  Reuben  Tracy 
had  looked  with  fondly  wistful  vision  down  upon  it, 
but  it  was  no  longer  of  much  importance.  It  was 
yet  possible  to  discern  in  the  quiet  streets  imme 
diately  adjoining  the  seminary  enclosure,  with  their 
tall  arched  canopies  of  elm-boughs,  and  old-fashioned 


144  The  Lawtott  Girl. 

white  houses  with  verandas  and  antique  gardens, 
some  remains  of  the  academic  character  that  this  in 
stitution  had  formerly  imparted  to  the  whole  village. 
But  the  centre  of  activity  and  of  population  had 
long  since  moved  southward,  and  around  this  had 
grown  up  a  new  Thessaly,  which  needed  neither  elms 
nor  gardens,  which  had  use  for  its  children  at  the 
loom  or  the  lathe  when  the  rudiments  of  the  com 
mon  school  were  finished,  and  which  alike  in  its  hours 
of  toil  and  of  leisure  was  anything  rather  than  aca 
demic.  I  suppose  that  in  this  modern  Thessaly, 
with  its  factories  and  mills,  its  semi-foreign  saloons, 
and  its  long  streets  of  uniformly  ugly  cottage  dwell 
ings,  there  were  many  hundreds  of  adults  who  had 
no  idea  whether  the  once-famous  Thessaly  seminary 
was  still  open  or  not. 

If  Thessaly  had  had  the  time  and  inclination  for 
a  serious  study  of  itself,  this  decadence  of  the  object 
of  its  former  pride  might  have  awakened  some  regret. 
The  seminary,  which  had  been  one  of  the  first  in 
the  land  to  open  its  doors  to  both  sexes,  had  borne 
an  honorable  part  in  the  great  agitation  against 
slavery  that  preceded  the  war.  Some  of  its  pro 
fessors  had  been  distinguished  abolitionists — of  the 
kind  who  strove,  suffered,  and  made  sacrifices  when 
the  cause  was  still  unpopular,  yet  somehow  fell  or 
were  edged  out  of  public  view  once  the  cause  had 
triumphed  and  there  were  rewards  to  be  distributed, 
and  they  had  taken  the  sentiment  of  the  village  with 
them  in  those  old  days.  Then  there  was  a  steady 
demand  upon  the  seminary  library,  which  was  open 


The   Thessaly  Citizen^  Club.  145 

to  householders  of  the  village,  for  good  books. 
Then  there  was  maintained  each  winter  a  lecture 
course,  which  was  able,  not  so  much  by  money  as  by 
the  weight  and  character  of  its  habitual  patrons,  to 
enrich  its  annual  lists  with  such  names  as  Emerson, 
Burritt,  Phillips,  Curtis,  and  Beecher.  At  this  time 
had  occurred  the  most  sensational  episode  in  the 
history  of  the  village — when  the  rumor  spread  that 
a  runaway  negro  was  secreted  somewhere  about  the 
seminary  buildings,  and  a  pro-slavery  crowd  came 
over  from  Tyre  to  have  him  out  and  to  vindicate 
upon  the  persons  of  his  protectors  the  outraged 
majesty  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  and  the  citizens 
of  Thessaly  rose  and  chased  back  the  invaders  with 
celerity  and  emphasis. 

But  all  this  had  happened  so  long  ago  that  it  was 
only  vaguely  remembered  now.  There  were  those 
who  still  liked  to  recall  those  days  and  to  tell 
stories  about  them,  but  they  had  only  themselves 
for  listeners.  The  new  Thessaly  was  not  precisely 
intolerant  of  the  history  of  this  ante-bellum  period, 
but  it  had  fresher  and  more  important  matters  to 
think  of ;  and  its  customary  comment  upon  these 
legends  of  the  slow,  one-horse  past  was,  "  Things 
have  changed  a  good  deal  since  then,"  offered  with 
a  smile  of  distinct  satisfaction. 

Yes,  things  had  changed.  Stephen  Minster's  en 
terprise  in  opening  up  the  iron  fields  out  at  Juno, 
and  in  building  the  big  smelting-works  on  the  out 
skirts  of  Thessaly,  had  altered  everything.  The 
branch  road  to  the  coal  district  which  he  called  into 

10 


146  The  Lawton  Girl. 

existence  lifted  the  village  at  once  into  prominence 
as  a  manufacturing  site.  Other  factories  were 
erected  for  the  making  of  buttons,  shoes,  Scotch- 
caps,  pasteboard  boxes,  matches,  and  a  number  of 
varieties  of  cotton  cloths.  When  this  last  indus 
try  appeared  in  the  midst  of  them,  the  people  of 
Thessaly  found  their  heads  fairly  turned.  To  be 
lords  of  iron  and  cotton  both! 

This  period  of  industrial  progress,  of  which  I 
speak  with,  I  hope,  becoming  respect  and  pride,  had 
now  lasted  some  dozen  years,  and,  so  far  from  show 
ing  signs  of  interruption,  there  were  under  discussion 
four  or  five  new  projects  for  additional  trades  to 
be  started  in  the  village,  which  would  be  decided 
upon  by  the  time  the  snow  was  off  the  ground.  Dur 
ing  these  years,  Thessaly  had  more  than  quadrupled 
its  population,  which  was  now  supposed  to  approx 
imate  thirteen  thousand,  and  might  be  even  more. 
There  had  been  considerable  talk  for  the  past  year  or 
two  about  getting  a  charter  as  a  city  from  the  legis 
lature,  and  undoubtedly  this  would  soon  be  done. 
About  this  step  there  were,  however,  certain  diffi 
culties,  more  clearly  felt  than  expressed.  Not  even 
those  who  were  most  exultant  over  Thessaly's  splen 
did  advance  in  wealth  and  activity  were  blind  to 
sundry  facts  written  on  the  other  side  of  the  ledger. 

Thessaly  had  now  some  two  thousand  voters,  of 
whom  perhaps  two-fifths  had  been  born  in  Europe. 
It  had  a  saloon  for  every  three  hundred  and  fifty 
inhabitants,  and  there  was  an  uneasy  sense  of  con 
nection  between  these  two  facts  which  gave  rise  to 


Tht   Thessaly  Citizens'   Club.  147 

awkward  thoughts.  The  village  was  fairly  well  man 
aged  by  its  trustees  ;  the  electorate  insisted  upon 
nothing  save  that  they  should  grant  licenses  liber 
ally,  and,  this  apart,  their  government  did  not  leave 
much  to  be  desired.  But  how  would  it  be  when  the 
municipal  honors  were  taken  on,  when  mayor,  alder 
men  and  all  the  other  officers  of  the  new  city,  with  en 
larged  powers  of  expenditure  and  legislation,  should 
be  voted  for  ?  Whenever  the  responsible  business 
men  of  Thessaly  allowed  their  minds  to  dwell  upon  a 
forecast  of  what  this  board  of  aldermen  would  proba 
bly  be  like,  they  frankly  owned  to  themselves  that 
the  prospect  was  not  inviting.  But  as  a  rule  they 
did  not  say  so,  and  the  village  was  drifting  citywards 
on  a  flowing  tide. 

It  was  just  before  Christmas  that  Reuben  Tracy 
took  the  first  step  toward  realizing  his  dream  of 
making  this  Thessaly  a  better  place  than  it  was. 
Fourteen  citizens,  all  more  or  less  intimate  friends 
of  his,  assembled  at  his  office  one  evening,  and  de 
voted  some  hours  to  listening  to  and  discussing  his 
plans. 

An  embarrassment  arose  almost  at  the  outset 
through  the  discovery  that  five  or  six  of  the  men 
present  thought  Thessaly  was  getting  on  very  well  as 
it  was,  and  had  assumed  that  the  meeting  was  called 
for  the  purpose  of  arranging  a  citizens'  movement 
to  run  the  coming  spring  elections  for  trustees  in 
the  interest  of  good  government — by  which  they  of 
course  understood  that  they  were  to  be  asked  to 


148  The  Lawton  Girl. 

take  office.  The  exposure  of  this  mistake  threat 
ened  for  a  little  time  to  wreck  the  purpose  of 
the  gathering.  Mr.  Jones,  a  gentleman  who  made 
matches,  or  rather  had  just  taken  a  handsome  sum 
from  the  great  Ruby  Loco-foco  Trust  as  his  reward 
for  ceasing  to  manufacture  them,  was  especially  dis 
posed  to  resent  what  Reuben  said  about  the  moral 
and  material  state  of  the  village.  He  insisted  that 
it  was  the  busiest  and  most  progressive  town  in  that 
whole  section  of  the  State  ;  it  had  six  streets  well 
paved,  was  lighted  with  gas,  had  no  disorderly  houses 
to  speak  of,  and  turned  out  an  annual  production  of 
manufactures  worth  two  and  a  half  times  as  much  as 
the  industrial  output  of  any  other  place  of  its  size  in 
the  State.  He  had  the  figures  at  his  tongue's  end, 
and  when  he  finished  with  a  spirited  sentence  about 
being  proud  of  his  native  town,  and  about  birds 
fouling  their  own  nests,  it  looked  as  if  he  had  the 
sense  of  the  little  assemblage  with  him. 

Reuben  Tracy  found  it  somewhat  difficult  to  reply 
to  an  unexpected  attack  of  this  nature.  He  was 
forced  to  admit  the  truth  of  everything  his  critic 
had  said,  and  then  to  attempt  once  more  to  show 
why  these  things  were  not  enough.  Father  Chance, 
the  Catholic  priest,  a  broad-shouldered,  athletic 
young  man,  who  preached  very  commonplace  ser 
mons  but  did  an  enormous  amount  of  pastoral  work, 
took  up  the  speaking,  and  showed  that  his  mind  ran 
mainly  upon  the  importance  of  promoting  total 
abstinence.  John  Fairchild,  the  editor  and  owner  of 
Thessaly's  solitary  daily  paper,  a  candid  and  warm- 


The   Thessaly  Citizens    Club.  149 

hearted  man,  whose  heterodoxy  on  the  tariff  ques 
tion  gave  concern  to  the  business  men  of  the  place, 
but  whose  journal  was  honest  and  popular,  next  ex 
plained  what  his  views  were,  and  succeeded  in  pre 
cipitating,  by  some  chance  remark,  a  long,  rambling, 
and  irrelevant  debate  on  the  merits  of  protection 
and  the  proper  relations  between  capital  and  labor. 
To  illustrate  his  position  on  these  subjects,  and  on 
the  general  question  of  Thessaly's  condition,  Mr. 
Burdick,  the  cashier  of  the  Dearborn  County  Bank, 
next  related  how  he  was  originally  opposed  to  the 
Bland  Silver  bill,  and  detailed  the  mental  processes 
by  which  his  opinion  had  finally  become  reversed. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Turner,  the  rector  of  St.  Matthew's, 
a  mildly  paternal  gentleman,  who  seemed  chiefly 
occupied  by  the  thought  that  he  was  in  the  same 
room  with  a  Catholic  priest,  tentatively  suggested 
a  bazaar,  with  ladies  and  the  wives  of  workingmen 
mingled  together  on  the  committee,  and  smiled  and 
coughed  confusedly  when  this  idea  was  received  in 
absolute  silence. 

It  was  Dr.  Lester,  a  young  physician  who  had 
moved  into  the  village  only  a  few  years  before,  but 
was  already  its  leading  medical  authority,  who  broke 
this  silence  by  saying,  with  a  glance  which,  slowly 
circling  the  room,  finally  rested  on  Reuben  Tracy : 
"  All  this  does  not  help  us.  Our  views  on  all  sorts 
of  matters  are  interesting,  no  doubt,  but  they  are 
not  vital  just  now.  The  question  is  not  so  much 
why  you  propose  something,  but  what  do  you  pro* 
pose?" 


150  The  Lawton  Girl. 

The  answer  came  before  the  person  addressed  had 
arranged  his  words,  and  it  came  from  Horace  Boyce. 
This  young  gentleman  had,  with  a  self-restraint 
which  he  himself  was  most  surprised  at,  taken  no 
part  in  the  previous  conversation. 

"  I  think  this  is  the  idea,"  he  said  now,  pulling  his 
chair  forward  into  the  edge  of  the  open  space  under 
the  light,  and  speaking  with  easy  distinctness  and 
fluency.  "  It  will  be  time  enough  to  determine  just 
what  we  will  do  when  we  have  put  ourselves  in  the 
position  to  act  together  upon  what  we  may  decide 
to  do.  We  are  all  proud  and  fond  of  our  village; 
we  are  at  one  in  our  desire  to  serve  and  advance  its 
interests.  That  is  a  platform  broad  enough,  and  yet 
specific  enough,  for  us  to  start  upon.  Let  us  accept 
it  as  a  beginning,  and  form  an  association,  club,  soci 
ety — whatever  it  may  be  called — with  this  primary 
purpose  in  view  :  to  get  together  in  one  body  the 
gentlemen  who  represent  what  is  most  enlightened, 
most  public-spirited,  and  at  once  most  progressive 
and  most  conservative  in  Thessaly.  All  that  we 
need  at  first  is  the  skeleton  of  an  organization,  the 
most  important  feature  of  which  would  be  the  com 
mittee  on  membership.  Much  depends  upon  get 
ting  the  right  kind  of  men  interested  in  the  matter. 
Let  the  objects  and  work  of  this  organization  unfold 
and  develop  naturally  and  by  degrees.  It  may  take 
the  form  of  a  mechanics'  institute,  a  library,  a  gym 
nasium,  a  system  of  coffee-taverns,  a  lecture  course 
with  elevating  popular  exhibitions  ;  and  so  I  might 
go  on,  enumerating  all  the  admirable  things  which 


The   TJiessaly  Citizens    Club,  151 

similar  bodies  have  inaugurated  in  other  villages, 
both  here  and  in  Europe.  I  have  made  these  mat 
ters,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  a  subject  of  consider 
able  observation  ;  I  am  enthusiastic  over  the  idea  of 
setting  some  such  machinery  in  motion  here,  and  I 
am  perfectly  confident,  once  it  is  started,  that  the 
leading  men  of  Thessaly  will  know  how  to  make  it 
produce  results  second  to  none  in  the  whole  world 
wide  field  of  philanthropic  endeavor." 

When  young  Mr.  Boyce  had  finished,  there  was  a 
moment's  hush.  Then  Reuben  Tracy  began  to  say 
that  this  expressed  what  he  had  in  mind  ;  but,  before 
he  had  the  words  out,  the  match  manufacturer  ex 
claimed  : 

"  Whatever  kind  of  organization  we  have,  it  will 
need  a  president,  and  I  move  that  Mr.  Horace  Boyce 
be  elected  to  that  place." 

Two  or  three  people  in  the  shadows  behind  clapped 
their  hands.  Horace  protested  that  it  was  prema 
ture,  irregular,  that  he  was  too  young,  etc. ;  but  the 
match-maker  was  persistent,  and  on  a  vote  there 
was  no  opposition.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Turner  ceased 
smiling  for  a  moment  or  two  while  this  was 
going  on,  and  twirled  his  thumbs  nervously;  but 
nobody  paid  any  attention  to  him,  and  soon  his 
face  lightened  again  as  his  name  was  placed  just 
before  that  of  Father  Chance  on  the  general  com 
mittee. 

Once  started,  the  work  of  organization  went  for 
ward  briskly.  It  was  decided  at  first  to  call  the 
organization  the  "  Thessaly  Reform  Club,"  but  two 


152  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

manufacturers  suggested  that  this  was  only  one 
remove  from  styling  it  a  Cobden  Club  outright,  and 
so  the  name  was  altered  to  "  Thessaly  Citizens' 
Club,"  and  all  professed  themselves  pleased.  When 
the  question  of  a  treasurer  came  up,  Reuben  Tracy's 
name  was  mentioned,  but  some  one  asked  if  it  would 
look  just  the  thing  to  have  the  two  principal  officers 
in  one  firm,  and  so  the  match-maker  consented  to 
take  the  office  instead.  Even  the  committee  on 
by-laws  would  have  been  made  up  without  Reuben 
had  not  Horace  interfered  ;  then,  upon  John  Fair- 
child's  motion,  he  was  made  the  chairman  of  that 
committee,  while  Fairchild  himself  was  appointed 
secretary. 

When  the  meeting  had  broken  up,  and  the  men 
were  putting  on  their  overcoats  and  lighting  fresh 
cigars,  Dr.  Lester  took  the  opportunity  of  saying 
in  an  undertone  to  Reuben  :  "  Well,  what  do  you 
think  of  it?" 

"  It  seems  to  have  taken  shape  very  nicely. 
Don't  you  think  so?" 

"  Hm-m  !  There's  a  good  deal  of  Boyce  in  it  so 
far,  and  damned  little  Tracy  !  " 

Reuben  laughed.  "  Oh,  don't  be  disturbed  about 
that.  He's  the  best  man  for  the  place.  He's  studied 
all  these  things  in  Europe — the  cooperative  insti 
tutes  in  the  English  industrial  towns,  and  so  on  ; 
and  he'll  put  his  whole  soul  into  making  this  a 
success." 

The  doctor  sniffed  audibly  at  this,  but  offered  no 
further  remark.  Later  on,  however,  when  he  was 


The   Thessaly  Citizens    Club.  153 

walking  along  in  the  crisp  moonlight  with  John 
Fairchild,  he  unburdened  his  mind. 

"  It  was  positively  sickening,"  he  growled,  biting 
his  cigar  angrily,  "  to  see  the  way  that  young  cub  of 
a  Boyce  foisted  himself  upon  the  concern.  I'd  bet 
any  money  he  put  up  the  whole  thing  with  Jones. 
They  nominated  each  other  for  president  and  treas 
urer — didn't  you  notice  that?" 

"  Yes,  I  noticed  it,"  replied  Fairchild,  with  some 
thing  between  a  sigh  and  a  groan.  After  a  moment 
he  added  :  "  Do  you  know,  I'm  afraid  Rube  will 
find  himself  in  a  hole  with  that  young  man,  before 
he  gets  through  with  him.  It  may  sound  funny  to 
you,  but  I'm  deucedly  nervous  about  it.  I'd  rather 
see  a  hundred  Boyces  broiled  alive  than  have  harm 
come  to  so  much  as  Tracy's  little  finger." 

"  What  could  have  ailed  him  to  go  in  blindfold 
like  that  into  the  partnership  ?  He  knew  absolutely 
nothing  of  the  fellow." 

"  I've  told  him  a  hundred  times,  he's  got  no  more 
notion  of  reading  characters  than  a  mulley  cow. 
Anybody  can  go  up  to  him  and  wheedle  his  coat  off 
his  back,  if  he  knows  the  first  rudiments  of  the  con 
fidence  game.  It  seems,  in  this  special  instance, 
that  he  took  a  fancy  to  Boyce  because  he  saw  him 
give  two  turkeys  to  old  Ben  Lawton,  who'd  lost  his 
money  at  a  turkey-shoot  and  got  no  birds.  He 
thought  it  was  generous  and  noble  and  all  that.  So 
far  as  I  can  make  out,  that  was  his  only  reason." 

Dr.  Lester  stopped  short  and  looked  at  his  com 
panion.  Then  he  burst  out  in  a  loud,  shrill  laugh, 


154  The  Lawton  Girl. 

which  renewed  itself  in  intermittent  gurgles  of  mer 
riment  so  many  times  that  Fairchild  finally  found 
them  monotonous,  and  interposed  a  question  : 

"There's  something  besides  fun  in  all  this,  Lester. 
What  is  it  ?  " 

"  It  isn't  professional  to  tell,  my  dear  fellow, 
but  there  is  something — you're  right — and  we  are 
Reuben's  friends  against  all  the  world  ;  and  this  is 
what  I  laughed  at." 

Then  in  a  low  tone,  as  if  even  the  white  flaring 
moon  and  the  jewelled  stars  in  the  cold  sky  had  ears, 
he  told  his  secret  to  his  friend — a  secret  involving 
one  small  human  being  of  whose  very  existence  Mr. 
Horace  Boyce  had  no  knowledge. 

"  The  girl  has  come  back  here  to  Thessaly,  you 
know,"  concluded  the  doctor. 

Fairchild  nodded  assent.  Then  after  a,  moment's 
thought  he  said  : 

"  It's  too  bad  we  changed  the  name  of  the  organ 
ization.  That  cuss  ought  to  be  the  president  of  a 
Reform  Club ! " 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   DAUGHTER   OF   THE    MILLIONS. 

A  YOUNG  woman  who  is  in  her  twenty-third  year, 
who  is  possessed  of  bright  wits,  perfect  health,  great 
personal  beauty,  and  a  fortune  of  nearly  a  million  of 
dollars  in  her  own  right,  and  who  moreover  is  un 
troubled  by  a  disquieting  preference  for  any  single 
individual  in  the  whole  army  of  males,  ought  not, 
by  all  the  rules,  to  be  unhappy. 

Kate  Minster  defied  the  rules,  and  moped.  Not 
infrequently  she  found  herself  in  the  mood  to  think, 
"Now  I  realize  how  rich  girls  must  feel  when  they 
commit  themselves  to  entering  a  convent."  Oftener 
still,  perhaps,  she  caught  her  tongue  framing  im 
patient  or  even  petulant  answers  to  her  mother,  to 
her  mother's  friends,  to  everybody,  in  truth,  save 
her  sister  Ethel.  The  conviction  that  she  was  bad- 
tempered  had  begun  to  enter  her  mind  as  it  were 
without  rapping,  and  with  the  air  of  a  familiar.  By 
dint  of  repeated  searchings  in  the  mirror,  she  had 
almost  discovered  a  shadow  between  her  brows 
which  would  presently  develop  into  a  wrinkle,  and 
notify  to  the  whole  world  her  innate  vixenish  ten 
dencies.  And  indeed,  with  all  this  brooding  which 
grew  upon  her,  it  was  something  of  a  triumph  for 
youth  that  the  wrinkle  had  still  failed  to  come. 


156  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

It  is  said  that  even  queens  yawn  sometimes,  when 
nobody  is  looking.  But  at  least  they  have  work  to 
do,  such  as  it  is,  and  grow  tired.  Miss  Kate  had  no 
work  of  any  sort,  and  was  utterly  wearied.  The 
vacuity  of  existence  oppressed  her  with  formless 
fatigue,  like  a  nightmare. 

The  mischief  was  that  all  of  his  own  tremendous 
energy  which  Stephen  Minster  had  transmitted  to 
the  generation  following  him  was  concentrated  in 
this  eldest  child  of  his.  The  son  had  been  a  light 
headed  weakling.  The  other  daughter,  Ethel,  was 
as  fragile  and  tenderly  delicate  as  a  Christmas  rose. 
But  Kate  had  always  been  the  strong  one  of  the 
family,  physically  vigorous,  restive  under  unintelli 
gent  discipline,  rebellious  to  teachers  she  disliked, 
and  proudly  confident  of  her  position,  her  ability, 
and  the  value  of  her  plans  and  actions.  She  had 
loved  her  father  passionately,  and  never  ceased  to 
mourn  that,  favorite  of  his  though  she  was,  business 
cares  had  robbed  her  of  so  much  of  his  company  for 
years  before  his  death.  As  a  girl  she  had  dreamed 
her  dreams — bold,  sweepingly  ambitious  visions  they 
were  ;  but  this  father  of  whom  she  was  so  proud, 
this  powerful  father  who  had  so  manfully  subdued 
things  under  his  feet,  was  always  the  one  who  was 
to  encompass  their  fulfilment.  When  he  died,  her 
aerial  castles  at  a  stroke  tumbled  into  chaos.  All 
her  plans  and  aspirations  had  turned  upon  him  as 
their  pivot.  Without  him  all  was  disorganized, 
shapeless,  incomprehensible. 

Nearly  three  years  had  gone  by,  and  still  matters 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  157 

about  her  and  possibilities  before  her  alike  refused 
to  take  on  definite  outlines.  She  still  did  not  do  to 
day  the  things  she  wanted  to  do,  yet  felt  as  power 
less  as  ever  to  tell  what  her  purposes  for  to-morrow 
clearly  were.  All  the  conditions  for  achievement 
were  hers  to  command,  and  there  was  nothing  to 
achieve. 

There  was  something  alike  grotesque  and  pathetic 
in  the  record  of  her  attempts  to  find  work.  She 
had  gathered  at  considerable  expense  all  the  books 
and  data  she  could  learn  about  relating  to  the  life 
and  surroundings  of  Lady  Arabella  Stuart,  and  had 
started  to  write  what  should  be  the  authoritative 
work  on  the  subject,  only  to  discover  that  she  did 
not  know  how  to  make  a  book,  and  would  not  want 
to  make  that  kind  of  a  book  if  she  had  known  how. 
She  had  begun  collections  of  orchids,  of  coins,  of 
engraved  portraits,  of  cameos,  and,  at  varying  times, 
of  kindred  other  trifles,  and  then  on  some  gray  and 
rainy  morning  had  found  herself  impelled  to  turn 
upon  each  of  these  in  its  order  with  disgust  and 
wrath.  For  music  she  unluckily  had  no  talent,  and 
a  very  exhaustive  and  costly  outfit  of  materials  for  a 
painter's  studio  amused  her  for  less  than  one  short 
month.  She  had  a  considerable  feeling  for  color, 
but  was  too  impatient  to  work  laboriously  at  the 
effort  to  learn  to  draw ;  and  so  she  hated  her  pic 
tures  while  they  were  being  painted,  and  laughed 
scornfully  at  them  afterward.  She  wrote  three  or 
four  short  stories,  full  of  the  passions  she  had  read 
about,  and  was  chagrined  to  get  them  back  from  a 


158  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

whole  group  of  polite  but  implacable  editors.  Em- 
broidery  she  detested,  and  gardening  makes  one's 
back  ache. 

-  Miss  Minster  was  perfectly  aware  that  other  young 
ladies,  similarly  situated,  got  on  very  well  indeed, 
without  ever  fluttering  so  much  as  a  feather  for  a 
flight  toward  the  ether  beyond  their  own  personal 
atmosphere ;  but  she  did  not  clearly  comprehend 
what  it  was  that  they  did  like.  She  had  seen  some 
thing  of  their  daily  life — perhaps  more  of  their 
amusements  than  of  their  occupations — and  it  was 
not  wholly  intelligible  to  her.  They  seemed  able  to 
extract  entertainment  from  a  host  of  things  which 
were  to  her  almost  uninteresting.  During  her  few 
visits  to  New  York,  Newport,  and  Saratoga,  for  the 
most  part  made  during  her  father's  lifetime,  people 
had  been  extremely  kind  to  her,  and  had  done  their 
best  to  make  her  feel  that  there  existed  for  her, 
ready  made,  a  very  notable  social  position.  She  had 
been  invited  to  more  dinners  than  there  were  days 
at  her  disposal  in  which  to  eat  them  ;  she  had  been 
called  with  something  like  public  acclamation  the 
belle  of  sundry  theatre  parties  ;  her  appearance  and 
her  clothes  had  been  canvassed  with  distinctly  over- 
free  flattery  in  one  or  two  newspapers  ;  she  had 
danced  a  little,  made  a  number  of  calls,  suffered 
more  than  was  usual  from  headaches,  and  yawned  a 
great  deal.  The  women  whom  she  met  all  seemed 
to  take  it  for  granted  that  she  was  in  the  seventh 
heaven  of  enjoyment ;  and  the  young  men  with  huge 
expanses  of  shirt  front,  who  sprang  up  everywhere 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  159 

in  indefinite  profusion  about  her,  like  the  clumps  of 
white  double-hollyhocks  in  her  garden  at  home,  were, 
evidently  altogether  sincere  in  their  desire  to  please 
her.  But  the  women  all  received  the  next  comer 
with  precisely  the  smile  they  gave  her ;  and  the 
young  men,  aside  from  their  eagerness  to  devise  andv 
provide  diversions  for  her,  and  the  obvious  honesty 
of  their  liking  for  her,  were  deadly  commonplace. 
She  was  always  glad  when  it  was  time  to  return  to 
Thessaly. 

Yet  in  this  same  village  she  was  practically  se 
cluded  from  the  society  of  her  own  generation, 
There  were  not  a  few  excellent  families  in  Thessaly 
who  were  on  calling  and  even  dining  terms  with  the 
Minsters,  but  there  had  never  been  many  children  in 
these  purely  native  households,  and  now  most  of  the 
grown-up  sons  had  gone  to  seek  fortune  in  the  great 
cities,  and  most  of  the  girls  had  married  either  men 
who  lived  elsewhere  or  men  who  did  not  quite  come 
within  the  Minsters'  social  pale. 

It  was  a  wearisome  and  vexatious  thing,  she  said 
to  herself  very  often,  this  barrier  of  the  millions  be 
yond  which  she  must  not  even  let  her  fancy  float, 
and  which  encompassed  her  solitude  like  a  prison 
wall.  Often,  too,  she  approached  the  point  of  medi 
tating  revolt,  but  only  to  realize  with  a  fresh  sigh 
that  the  thought  was  hopeless.  What  could  she  do? 
If  the  people  of  her  own  class,  even  with  the  advan 
tages  of  amiable  manners,  cleanliness,  sophisticated 
speech,  and  refined  surroundings,  failed  to  interest 
her,  it  was  certain  enough  that  the  others  would  be 


160  The  Lawton  Girl. 

even  less  tolerable.  And  she  for  whose  own  protec 
tion  these  impalpable  defences  against  unpleasant 
people,  adventurers,  fortune-hunters,  and  the  like, 
had  all  been  reared,  surely  she  ought  to  be  the  last 
,in  the  world  to  wish  them  levelled.  And  then  she 
would  see,  of  course,  that  she  did  not  wish  this  ;  yet, 
'all  the  same,  it  was  very,  very  dull ! 

There  must  be  whole  troops  of  good  folk  some 
where  whom  she  could  know  with  pleasure  and 
gain — nice  women  who  would  like  her  for  herself, 
and  clever  men  who  would  think  it  worth  their 
while  to  be  genuine  with  her,  and  would  compli 
ment  her  intelligence  by  revealing  to  it  those  high 
thoughts,  phrased  in  glowing  language,  of  which  the 
master  sex  at  its  best  is  reputed  to  be  capable — if 
only  they  would  come  in  her  way.  But  there  were 
no  signs  betokening  their  advent,  and  she  did  not 
know  where  to  look  for  them,  and  could  not  have 
sallied  forth  in  the  quest  if  she  had  known  ;  and  oh, 
but  this  was  a  weary  world,  and  riches  were  mere 
useless  rubbish,  and  life  was  a  mistake ! 

Patient,  soft-eyed  Ethel  was  the  one  to  whom 
such  of  these  repinings  against  existence  as  found 
their  way  into  speech  were  customarily  addressed. 
She  was  sympathetic  enough,  but  hers  was  a  tem 
perament  placid  as  it  was  tender,  and  Kate  could  do 
everything  else  save  strike  out  sparks  from  it  when 
her  mood  was  for  a  conflagration.  As  for  the  mother, 
she  knew  in  a  general  way  that  Kate  had  a  com 
plaining  and  unsatisfied  disposition,  and  had  always 
had  it,  and  accepted  the  fact  much  as  she  did  that  of 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  161 

Ethel's  poor  health — as  something  which  could  not 
be  helped,  and  therefore  need  not  be  worried  about. 
Hence,  she  was  but  rarely  made  the  confidante  of 
her  elder  daughter's  feelings,  but  Kate  occasionally 
railed  at  destiny  in  the  hearing  of  Miss  Tabitha 
Wilcox,  whom  she  liked  sometimes  much  more  than 
at  others,  but  always  enough  to  have  a  certain  satis 
faction  in  mildly  bullying  her. 

"  You  know  as  well  as  I  do,  Tabitha,"  said  Miss 
Kate  one  afternoon  in  January,  rising  from  the 
couch  where  she  had  been  lounging  in  sheer  idleness, 
and  walking  over  to  the  window  with  slow  indolence 
of  gait,  "  that  our  whole  life  here  is  simply  ridicu 
lous.  We  girls  have  lived  here  in  Thessaly  ever  since 
we  were  little  children,  and  if  we  left  the  place  for 
good  to-morrow,  positively  there  would  not  be  a 
single  personal  tie  to  be  broken.  So  far  as  making 
friends  go,  we  might  as  well  have  lived  in  the  moon, 
where  I  believe  it  is  settled  that  there  are  no  people 
at  all.  And  pray  what  is  there  in  life  worth  having 
but  friends — I  mean  real  friends?" 

"  I  had  supposed,"  began  the  little  lady  with  the 
iron-gray  curls,  who  sat  primly  beside  the  window  at 
one  corner  of  the  great  drawing-room — "  I  had  sup 
posed  that  /would  be  reckoned  among — 

"  Oh,  don't  take  me  up  in  that  way,  Tabitha ! 
Of  course,  I  reckoned  you — you  know  that  well 
enough — that  is,  you  count  and  you  don't  count,  for 
you  are  like  one  of  us.  Besides,  I  was  thinking  of 
people  of  my  own  age.  There  are  some  few  nice 
girls  here,  but  they  are  never  frank  with  me  as  they 

XI 


1 62  The  Laivton  Girt. 

are  among  themselves  ;  I  suppose  because  they  are 
always  thinking  that  I  am  rich.  And  how  many 
young  men  do  I  know  ?  Say  ten,  and  I  always  think 
I  can  see  dollar-marks  shining  in  their  eyes  whenever 
I  look  at  them.  Certainly  they  have  nothing  else 
inside  their  heads  that  would  shine." 

"  I  am  sure  you  exaggerate  their — 

"  Oh,  no,  Tabitha  !  Don't  be  sure  of  any  such 
thing.  They  couldn't  be  exaggerated  ;  they  wouldn't 
bear  it.  Candidly  now,  can  you  think  of  a  single 
man  in  the  place  whom  you  would  like  to  hear  men 
tioned  as  entertaining  the  shadow  of  a  hope  that 
some  time  he  might  be — what  shall  I  say  ? — allowed 
to  cherish  the  possibility  of  becoming  the — the  son- 
in-law  of  my  mother?  " 

"  I  didn't  think  your  mind  ran  on  such — ' 

"And  it  doesn't,"  broke  in  the  girl,  "  not  in  the 
least,  I  assure  you.  I  put  it  in  that  way  merely  to 
show  you  what  I  mean.  You  can't  associate  on 
terms  of  equality  with  people  who  would  almost  be 
put  out  of  the  house  if  they  ventured  to  dream  of 
asking  you  to  marry  them.  Both  sides  are  at  a  dis 
advantage.  Don't  you  see  what  I  mean  ?  There  is  a 
wall  between  them.  That  is  why  I  say  we  have  no 
friends  here ;  money  brings  us  nothing  that  is  of 
value  ;  this  isn't  like  a  home  at  all." 

"  Why,  and  everybody  is  talking  of  how  much 
Thessaly  has  improved  of  late  years.  And  quite 
nice  people  coming  in,  too  !  They  say  the  Bidwells, 
who  already  talk  of  building  a  second  factory  for 
their  button  business — they  say  they  moved  in  very 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  163 

good  society  indeed  at  Troy.  I've  met  Mrs.  Bid- 
well  twice  at  church  sociables — the  stout  lady,  you 
know,  with  the  false  front.  They  seem  quite  a 
knowable  family." 

Kate  did  not  reply,  but  drummed  on  the  window- 
pane  and  watched  the  fierce  quarrels  of  some  Eng 
lish  sparrows  flitting  about  on  the  frozen  snow  out 
side.  Miss  Tabitha  went  on  with  more  animation 
than  sequence : 

"  Of  course  you've  heard  of  the  club  they're  going 
to  start,  or  have  started  ;  they  call  it  the  Thessaly 
Citizens'  Club." 

"  Who  ?  the  Bidwells  ?  " 

"  Oh,  dear,  no  !  The  young  men  of  the  village — or 
I  suppose  it  will  soon  be  a  city  now.  They  tell  all 
sorts  of  stones  about  what  this  club  is  going  to  do  ; 
reform  the  whole  town,  if  you  believe  them.  I  al 
ways  understood  a  club  was  for  men  to  drink  and 
play  cards  and  sit  up  to  all  hours  in,  but  it  seems 
this  is  to  be  different.  At  any  rate,  several  clergy 
men,  Dr.  Turner  among  them,  have  joined  it,  and 
Horace  Boyce  was  elected  president." 

The  sparrows  had  disappeared,  but  Kate  made  no 
answer,  and  musingly  kept  her  eyes  fastened  on  the 
snow  where  the  disagreeable  birds  had  been. 

"  Now,  there  s  a  young  man,"  said  Miss  Tabitha, 
after  a  pause.  Still  no  comment  came  from  the 
window,  and  so  the  elder  maiden  drifted  forward  : 

"  It's  all  Horace  Boyce  now.  You  don't  hear  any 
thing  else.  Everybody  is  saying  he  will  soon  be  our 
leading  man.  They  tell  me  that  he  speaks  beauti- 


164  The  Lawton  Girl. 

fully — in  public,  I  mean — and  he  is  so  good-looking 
and  so  bright ;  they  all  expect  he'll  make  quite  a 
mark  when  court  sits  next  month.  I  suppose  he'll 
throw  his  partner  altogether  into  the  shade  ;  every 
body  at  least  seems  to  think  so.  And  Reuben 
Tracy  had  such  a  chance — once." 

The  tall,  dark  girl  at  the  window  still  did  not 
turn,  but  she  took  up  the  conversation  with  an 
accent  of  interest. 

"  Had  •&  chance — what  do  you  mean  ?  I've  never 
heard  a  word  against  him,  except  that  idle  story 
you  told  here  once." 

"  Idle  or  not,  Kate,  you  can't  deny  that  the  girl 
is  here." 

Kate  laughed,  in  scornful  amusement.  "No;  and 
so  winter  is  here,  and  you  are  here,  and  the  snow 
birds  are  here,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  But  what  does 
that  go  to  show  ?  " 

"And  that  reminds  me,"  exclaimed  Tabitha,  lean 
ing  forward  in  her  chair  with  added  eagerness — 
"  now,  what  do  you  think  ?  " 

"  The  processes  by  which  you  are  reminded  of 
things,  Tabitha,  are  not  fit  subjects  for  light  and 
frivolous  brains  like  mine." 

"  You  laugh  ;  but  you  really  never  could  guess  it 
in  all  your  born  days.  That  Lawton  girl — she's  ac 
tually  a  tenant  of  mine;  or,  that  is,  she  rented  from 
another  party,  but  she's  in  my  house  /  You  can  just 
fancy  what  a  state  I  was  in  when  I  heard  of  it." 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?     What  house  ?  " 

"You  know  those  places  of  mine  on  Bridge  Street 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  165 

— rickety  old  houses  they're  getting  to  be  now, 
though  I  must  say  they've  stood  much  better  than 
some  built  years  and  years  after  my  father  put  them 
up,  for  he  was  the  most  thorough  man  about  such 
things  you  ever  saw,  and  as  old  Major  Schoonmaker 
once  said  of  him,  he — " 

"  Yes,  but  what  about  that— that  girl  ?  " 
Tabitha  returned  to  her  subject  without  impa 
tience.  All  her  life  she  had  been  accustomed  to 
being  pulled  up  and  warned  from  rambling,  and  if 
her  hearers  neglected  to  do  this  the  responsibility 
for  the  omission  was  their  own. 

"  Well,  you  know  the  one-story-and-attic  place, 
painted  brown,  and  flat-roofed,  just  beyond  where  the 
Truemans  live.  It  seems  as  if  I  had  had  more  than 
forty  tenants  for  that  place.  Everybody  that  can't 
keep  a  store  anywhere,  and  make  a  living,  seems 
to  hit  upon  that  identical  building  to  fail  in.  Old 
Ikey  Peters  was  the  last ;  he  started  a  sort  of  fish 
store,  along  with  peanuts  and  toys  and  root  beer, 
and  he  came  to  me  a  month  or  two  back  and  said  it 
was  no  go  ;  he  couldn't  pay  the  rent  any  more,  and 
he'd  got  a  job  as  night  watchman  :  so  if  he  found 
another  tenant,  might  he  turn  it  over  to  him  until 
the  first  of  May,  when  his  year  would  be  up?  and 
I  said,  'Yes,  if  it  isn't  for  a  saloon.'  And  next  I 
heard  he  had  rented  the  place  to  a  woman  who  had 
come  from  Tecumseh  to  start  a  milliner's  shop.  I 
went  past  there  a  few  days  afterward,  and  I  saw 
Ben  Lawton  fooling  around  inside  with  a  jack-plane, 
fixing  up  a  table ;  but  even  then  I  hadn't  a  suspicion 


1 66  The  Lawton  Girl 

in  the  world.  It  must  have  been  a  week  later  that 
I  went  by  again,  and  there  I  saw  the  sign  over  the 
idoor,  '  J.  Lawton — Millinery  ;' and  would  you  be 
lieve  it,  even  then  I  didn't  dream  of  what  was  up  ! 
So  in  walks  I,  to  say  '  how  do  you  do,'  and  lo  and 
behold  !  there  was  Ben  Lawton's  eldest  girl  run 
ning  the  place,  and  quite  as  much  at  home  as  I  was. 
You  could  have  knocked  me  over  with  a  feather ! " 

"  Quite  appropriately,  in  a  milliner's  shop,  too," 
said  Kate,  who  had  taken  a  chair  opposite  to  Tab- 
itha's  and  seemed  really  interested  in  her  narrative. 

"  Well,  there  she  was,  anyway." 

"And  what  happened  next?  Did  you  faint  or 
run  away,  or  what?" 

"  Oh,  she  was  quite  civil,  I  must  say.  She  recog 
nized  me — she  used  to  see  me  at  my  sister's  when 
she  worked  there — and  asked  me  to  sit  down,  and 
explained  that  she  hadn't  got  entirely  settled  yet. 
Yes,  I  must  admit  that  she  was  polite  enough." 

"  How  tiresome  of  her!  Now,  if  she  had  thrown 
boiling  water  on  you,  or  even  made  faces  at  you,  it 
would  have  been  something  like.  But  to  ask  you 
to  sit  down  !  And  did  you  sit  down,  Tabitha  ?  " 

"  I  don't  see  how  I  could  have  done  otherwise. 
And  she  really  has  a  great  deal  of  taste  in  her  work. 
She  saw  in  a  minute  what's  been  the  trouble  with 
my  bonnets — you  know  I  always  told  you  there  was 
something — they  were  not  high  enough  in  front. 
Don't  you  think  yourself,  now,  that  this  is  an  im 
provement  ?  " 

Miss  Wilcox  lifted  her  chin,  and  turned  her  head 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  167 

slowly  around  for  inspection  ;  but,  instead  of  the 
praise  which  was  expected,  there  came  a  merry  out 
burst  of  laughter. 

"  And  you  really  bought  a  bonnet  of  her  !  "  Kate 
laughed  again  at  the  thought,  and  then,  with  a  sud 
den  impulse,  rose  from  her  chair,  glided  swiftly  to 
where  Tabitha  sat,  and  kissed  her.  "  You  soft 
hearted,  ridiculous,  sweet  old  thing ! "  she  said, 
beaming  at  her,  and  smoothing  the  old  maid's  cheek 
in  affectionate  patronage. 

Tabitha  smiled  with  pleasure  at  this  rare  caress, 
and  preened  her  head  and  thin  shoulders  with  a 
bird-like  motion.  But  then  the  serious  side  of  her 
experience  loomed  once  more  before  her,  and  the 
smile  vanished  as  swiftly  as  it  had  come. 

"  She's  not  living  with  her  father,  you  know.  She 
and  one  of  her  half-sisters  have  had  the  back  rooms 
rigged  up  to  live  in,  and  there  they  are  by  them 
selves.  I  guess  she  saw  by  my  face  that  I  didn't 
think  much  of  that  part  of  the  business.  Still,  thank 
goodness,  it's  only  till  the  first  of  May  !  " 

"Shall  you  turn  them  out  then,  Tabitha?"  Kate 
spoke  seriously  now. 

"The  place  has  always  been  respectable,  Kate, 
even  if  it  is  tumble-down.  To  be  sure,  I  did  hear 
certain  stories  about  the  family  of  the  man  who  sold 
non-explosive  oil  there  two  years  ago,  and  his  wife 
frizzed  her  hair  in  a  way  that  went  against  my  grain, 
I  must  admit  ;  but  it  would  never  do  to  have  a  scan 
dal  about  one  of  my  houses,  not  even  that  one  !  " 

"I  know  nothing  about  these  people,  of  course," 


1 68  The  Lawton  Girl. 

said  Kate,  slowly  and  thoughtfully  ;  "  but  it  seems 
to  me,  to  speak  candidly,  Tabitha,  that  you  are  the 
only  one  who  is  making  what  you  call  a  scandal. 
No — wait  ;  let  me  finish.  In  some  curious  way  the 
thought  of  this  girl  has  kept  itself  in  my  head — 
perhaps  it  was  because  she  came  back  here  on  the 
same  train  with  me,  or  something  else  equally  trivial. 
Perhaps  she  is  as  bad  a  character  as  you  seem  to 
think,  but  it  may  also  be  that  she  only  wants  a  little 
help  to  be  a  good  girl  and  to  make  an  honest  living 
for  herself.  To  me,  her  starting  a  shop  like  that 
here  in  her  native  village  seems  to  show  that  she 
wants  to  work." 

"  Why,  Kate,  everybody  knows  her  character. 
There's  no  secret  in  the  world  about  that." 

"  But  suppose  I  am  right  about  her  present  wish. 
Suppose  that  she  does  truly  want  to  rehabilitate 
herself.  Would  you  like  to  have  it  on  your  con 
science  that  you  put  so  much  as  a  straw  in  her  way, 
let  alone  turned  her  out  of  the  little  home  she  has 
made  for  herself?  I  know  you  better  than  that, 
Tabitha  :  you  couldn't  bring  yourself  to  do  it.  But 
there  is  this  other  thing.  You  may  do  her  a  great 
deal  of  injury  by  talking  about  her,  as,  for  example, 
you  have  been  talking  to  me  here  to-day.  I  am 
going  to  ask  you  a  favor,  a  real  personal  favor.  I 
want  you  to  promise  me  not  to  mention  that  girl's 
name  again  to  a  living  soul  until — when  shall  I  say? 
—until  the  first  of  May  ;  and  if  anybody  else  men 
tions  it,  to  say  nothing  at  all.  Now,  will  you  prom 
ise  that?" 


The  Daughter  of  the  Millions.  169 

"Of  course,  if  you  wish  it,  but  I  assure  you  there 
wasn't  the  slightest  doubt  in  the  world." 

"  That  I  don't  care  about.  Why  should  we 
women  be  so  brutal  to  each  other?  You  and  I  had 
good  homes,  good  fathers,  and  never  knew  what  it 
was  to  want  for  anything,  or  to  fight  single-handed 
against  the  world.  How  can  we  tell  what  might 
have  crushed  and  overwhelmed  us  if  we  had  been 
really  down  in  the  thick  of  the  battle,  instead  of 
watching  it  from  a  private  box  up  here?  No:  give 
the  girl  a  chance,  and  remember  your  promise." 

"  Come  to  think  of  it,  she  has  been  to  church 
twice  now,  two  Sundays  running.  And  Mrs.  Turner 
spoke  to  her  in  the  vestibule,  seeing  that  she  was  a 
stranger  and  neatly  dressed,  and  didn't  dream  who 
she  was ;  and  she  told  me  she  was  never  so  mortified 
in  her  life  as  when  she  found  out  afterward,  A  cler 
gyman's  wife  has  to  be  so  particular,  you  know." 

"Yes,"  Kate  answered,  absently.  Her  heart  was 
full  of  bitter  and  sardonic  things  to  say  about  Mrs. 
Turner  and  her  conceptions  of  the  duties  of  a  pas 
tor's  helpmeet,  but  she  withheld  them  because  they 
might  grieve  Tabitha,  and  then  was  amazed  at  her 
self  for  being  so  considerate,  and  then  fell  to  won 
dering  whether  she,  too,  was  bitten  by  this  phari- 
saical  spirit,  and  so  started  as  out  of  a  dream  when 
Tabitha  rose  and  said  she  must  go  and  see  Mrs. 
Minster  before  she  took  her  departure. 

"  Remember  your  promise,"  Kate  said,  with  a  little 
smile  and  another  caress.  She  had  not  been  so 
affectionate  before  in  a  long,  long  time,  and  the  old 


170  The  Lawton  Girl. 

maid  mused  flightily  on  this  unwonted  softness  as 
she  found  her  way  up-stairs. 

The  girl  returned  to  the  window  and  looked  out 
once  more  upon  the  smooth  white  crust  which, 
broken  only  by  half-buried  dwarf  firs,  stretched 
across  the  wide  lawn.  When  at  last  she  wearied  of 
the  prospect  and  her  thoughts,  and  turned  to  join 
the  family  on  the  floor  above,  she  confided  these 
words  aloud  to  the  solitude  of  the  big  room  : 

"  I  almost  wish  I  could  start  a  milliner's  shop  my 
self." 

The  depreciatory  reflection  that  she  had  never 
discovered  in  all  these  years  what  was  wrong  with 
Tabitha's  bonnets  rose  with  comical  suddenness  in 
her  mind,  and  she  laughed  as  she  opened  the  door. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

HORACE  EMBARKS  UPON  THE  ADVENTURE. 

YOUNG  Mr.  Boyce  was  spared  the  trouble  of  going 
to  Florida,  and  relieved  from  the  embarrassment  of 
inventing  lies  to  his  partner  about  the  trip,  which 
was  even  more  welcome.  Only  a  few  days  after  the 
interview  with  Mrs.  Minster,  news  came  of  the  un 
expected  death  of  Lawyer  Clarke,  caused  by  one 
of  those  sudden  changes  of  temperature  at  sunset 
which  have  filled  so  many  churchyards  in  that  sunny 
clime.  His  executors  were  both  resident  in  Thes- 
saly,  and  at  a  word  from  Mrs.  Minster  they  turned 
over  to  Horace  the  box  containing  the  documents 
relating  to  her  affairs.  Only  one  of  these  executors, 
old  'Squire  Gedney,  expressed  any  comment  upon 
Mrs.  Minster's  selection,  at  least  in  Horace's  hearing. 

This  Gedney  was  a  slovenly  and  mumbling  old 
man,  the  leading  characteristics  of  whose  appearance 
were  an  unshaven  jaw,  a  general  shininess  and  dis 
order  of  apparel,  and  a  great  deal  of  tobacco-juice. 
It  was  still  remembered  that  in  his  youth  he  had 
promised  to  be  an  important  figure  at  the  bar  and  in 
politics.  His  failure  had  been  exceptionally  obvious 
and  complete,  but  for  some  occult  reason  Thessaly 
had  a  soft  corner  in  its  heart  for  him,  even  when  his 
estate  bordered  upon  the  disreputable,  and  for  many 


172  The  Lawton  Girl. 

years  had  been  in  the  habit  of  electing  him  to  be  one 
of  its  justices  of  the  peace.  The  functions  of  this 
office  he  avowedly  employed  in  the  manner  best 
calculated  to  insure  the  livelihood  which  his  fellow- 
citizens  expected  him  to  get  out  of  it.  His  principal 
judicial  maxim  was  never  to  find  a  verdict  against 
the  party  to  a  suit  who  was  least  liable  to  pay  him 
his  costs.  If  justice  could  be  made  to  fit  with  this 
rule,  so  much  the  better  for  justice.  But,  in  any 
event,  the  'squire  must  look  out  primarily  for  his 
costs.  He  made  no  concealment  of  this  theory  and 
practice  ;  and  while  some  citizens  who  took  matters 
seriously  were  indignant  about  it,  the  great  majority 
merely  laughed  and  said  the  old  man  had  got  to  live 
somehow,  and  voted  good-naturedly  for  him  next 
time. 

If  Calvin  Gedney  owed  much  to  the  amiability 
and  friendly  feeling  of  his  fellow-townsmen,  he  repaid 
the  debt  but  poorly  in  kind.  No  bitterer  or  more 
caustic  tongue  than  his  wagged  in  all  Dearborn 
County.  When  he  was  in  a  companiable  mood,  and 
stood  around  in  the  cigar  store  and  talked  for  the 
delectation  of  the  boys  of  an  evening,  the  range  and 
scope  of  his  personal  sneers  and  sarcasms  would  ex 
pand  under  the  influence  of  applauding  laughter, 
until  no  name,  be  it  never  so  honored,  was  sacred 
from  his  attack,  save  always  one — that  of  Minster. 
There  was  a  popular  understanding  that  Stephen 
Minster  had  once  befriended  Gedney,  and  that  that 
accounted  for  the  exception  ;  but  this  was  rendered 
difficult  of  credence  by  the  fact  that  so  many  other 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the  Adventure.        173 

men  had  befriended  Gedney,  and  yet  now  served  as 
targets  for  his  most  rancorous  jeers.  Whatever  the 
reason  may  have  been,  however,  the  'squire's  affec 
tion  for  the  memory  of  Stephen  Minster,  and  his 
almost  defiant  reverence  for  the  family  he  had  left 
behind,  were  known  to  all  men,  and  regarded  as 
creditable  to  him. 

Perhaps  this  was  in  some  way  accountable  for  the 
fact  that  the  'squire  remained  year  after  year  in  old 
Mr.  Clarke's  will  as  an  executor,  long  after  he  had 
ceased  to  be  regarded  as  a  responsible  person  by  the 
village  at  large,  for  Mr.  Clarke  also  was  devoted  to 
the  Minsters.  At  all  events,  he  was  so  named  in  the 
will,  in  conjunction  with  a  non-legal  brother  of  the 
deceased,  and  it  was  in  this  capacity  that  he  ad 
dressed  some  remarks  to  Mr.  Horace  Boyce  when  he 
handed  over  to  him  the  Minster  papers.  The  scene 
was  a  small  and  extremely  dirty  chamber  off  the 
justice's  court-room,  furnished  mainly  by  a  squalid 
sofa-bed,  a  number  of  empty  bottles  on  the  bare 
floor,  and  a  thick  overhanging  canopy  of  cobwebs. 

"  Here  they  are,"  said  the  'squire,  expectorating 
indefinitely  among  the  bottles,  "and  God  help  'em! 
What  it  all  means  beats  me." 

"  I  guess  you  needn't  worry,  Cal,"  answered  Hor 
ace  lightly,  in  the  easily  familiar  tone  which  Thessaly 
always  adopted  toward  its  unrespected  magistrate. 
"  You'd  better  come  out  and  have  a  drink ;  then 
you'll  see  things  brighter." 

"  Damn  your  impudence,  you  young  cub  !  "  shout 
ed  the  'squire,  flaming  up  into  sudden  and  inexpli- 


174  The  Lawton  Girt. 

cable  wrath.  "  Who  are  you  calling  '  Cal '  ?  By  the 
Eternal,  when  I  was  your  age,  I'd  have  as  soon  bit 
ten  off  my  tongue  as  dared  call  a  man  of  my  years 
by  his  Christian  name  !  I  can  remember  your  great 
grandfather,  the  judge,  sir.  I  was  admitted  before 
he  died  ;  and  I  tell  you,  sir,  that  if  it  had  been  pos 
sible  for  me  to  venture  upon  such  a  piece  of  cheek 
with  him,  he'd  have  taken  me  over  his  knee,  by 
Gawd !  and  walloped  me  before  the  whole  assembled 
bar  of  Dearborn  County  !  " 

The  old  man  had  worked  himself  up  into  a  fever 
ish  reminiscence  of  his  early  stump-speaking  days, 
and  he  trembled  and  spluttered  over  his  concluding 
words  with  unwonted  excitement. 

Horace  felt  disposed  to  laugh.  People  always  did 
laugh  at  "  Cal  "  Gedney,  and  laugh  most  when  he 
grew  strenuous. 

"  You'd  better  get  the  drink  first,"  he  said,  putting 
the  box  under  his  arm,  "  and  then  free  your  mind." 

"  I'll  see  you  food  for  worms,  first !  "  shouted  the 
'squire,  still  furiously.  "You've  got  your  papers, 
and  I've  got  my  opinion,  and  that's  all  there  is  'twixt 
you  and  me.  There's  the  door  that  the  carpenters 
made,  and  I  guess  they  were  thinking  of  you  when 
they  made  it." 

"  Upon  my  word,  you're  amusing  this  morning, 
'squire,"  said  Horace,  looking  with  aroused  interest 
at  the  vehement  justice.  (i  What's  the  matter  with 
you?  Don't  your  clothes  fit  you  ?  Come  around  to 
the  house  and  I'll  rig  you  up  in  some  new  ones." 

The  'squire  began  with  a  torrent  of  explosive  pro< 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the  Adventure.        175 

fanity,  framed  in  gestures  which  almost  threatened 
personal  violence.  All  at  once  he  stopped  short, 
looked  vacantly  at  the  floor,  and  then  sat  down  on 
his  bed,  burying  his  face  in  his  hands.  From  the 
convulsive  clinching  of  his  fingers  among  the  grizzled, 
unkempt  locks  of  hair,  and  the  heaving  of  his  chest, 
Horace  feared  he  was  going  to  have  a  fit,  and,  ad 
vancing,  put  a  hand  on  his  shoulder. 

The  'squire  shook  it  off  roughly,  and  raised  his 
haggard,  deeply-furrowed  face.  It  was  a  strong- 
featured  countenance  still,  and  had  once  been  hand 
some  as  well,  but  what  it  chiefly  said  to  Horace  now 
was  that  the  old  man  couldn't  stand  many  more  such 
nights  of  it  as  this  last  had  evidently  been. 

"  Come,  'squire,  I  didn't  want  to  annoy  you.  I'm 
sorry  if  I  did." 

"  You  insulted  me,"  said  the  old  man,  with  a  dig 
nity  which  quavered  into  pathos  as  he  added  :  "  I've 
got  so  low  now,  by  Gawd,  that  even  you  can  insult 
me  !  " 

Horace  smiled  at  the  impracticability  of  all  this. 
"  What  the  deuce  is  it  all  about,  anyway  ?  "  he  asked. 
"  What  have  you  got  against  me  ?  I've  always  been 
civil  to  you,  haven't  I?" 

"You're  no  good,"  was  the  justice's  concise  ex 
planation. 

The  young  man  laughed  outright.  "  I  daresay 
you're  right,"  he  said,  pleasantly,  as  one  humors  a 
child.  "  Now  will  you  come  out  and  have  a  drink?" 

"  I've  not  been  forty-four  years  at  the  bar  for 
nothing — " 


i/6  The  Latvian  Girl, 

"  I  should  think  not  !  Whole  generations  of  bar 
keepers  can  testify  to  that." 

"  I  can  tell,"  went  on  the  old  man,  ignoring  the 
jest,  and  rising  from  the  bed  as  he  spoke  ;  "  I  can 
tell  when  a  man's  got  an  honest  face.  I  can  tell 
when  he  means  to  play  fair.  And  I  wouldn't  trust 
you  one  inch  farther,  Mr.  Horace  Boyce,  than  I 
could  throw  a  bull  by  the  tail.  I  tell  you  that,  sir, 
straight  to  your  teeth." 

Horace,  still  with  the  box  snugly  under  his  arm, 
had  sauntered  out  into  the  dark  and  silent  court 
room.  He  turned  now,  half  smiling,  and  said  : 

"  Third  and  last  call — do  you  want  a  drink  ?  " 

The  old  man's  answer  was  to  slam  the  door  in  his 
face  with  a  noise  which  rang  in  reverberating  echoes 
through  the  desolate  hall  of  justice.  Horace,  still 
smiling,  went  away. 

The  morning  had  lapsed  into  afternoon,  and  suc 
ceeding  hours  had  brought  the  first  ashen  tints  of 
dusk  into  the  winter  sky,  before  the  young  man 
completed  his  examination  of  the  Minster  papers. 
He  had  taken  them  to  his  own  room  in  his  father's 
house,  sending  word  to  the  office  that  he  had  a  cold 
and  would  not  come  down  that  day  ;  and  it  was 
behind  a  locked  door  that  he  had  studied  the  docu 
ments  which  stood  for  millions.  On  a  sheet  of 
paper  he  made  certain  memoranda  from  time  to 
time,  and  now  that  the  search  was  ended,  he  lighted 
a  fresh  cigar,  and  neatly  reduced  these  to  a  little 
tabular  statement: 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the  Adventure.        177 


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178  The  Lawton  Girl. 

When  Horace  had  finished  this  he  felt  justified  in 
helping  himself  to  some  brandy  and  soda.  It  was 
the  most  interesting  and  important  computation 
upon  which  he  had  ever  engaged,  and  its  noble  pro 
portions  grew  upon  him  momentarily  as  he  pondered 
them  and  sipped  his  drink.  More  than  two  and  a 
quarter  millions  lay  before  his  eyes,  within  reach  of 
his  hand.  Was  it  not  almost  as  if  they  were  his  ? 
And  of  course  this  did  not  represent  everything. 
There  was  sundry  village  property  that  he  knew 
about  ;  there  would  be  bank  accounts,  minor  invest 
ments  and  so  on,  quite  probably  raising  the  total  to 
nearly  or  quite  two  millions  and  a  half.  Oh,  to  think 
of  it! 

And  he  had  only  put  things  down  at  par  values. 
The  telegraph  stock  was  quoted  at  a  trifle  less,  just 
now,  but  if  there  had  been  any  Minster  Iron-works 
stock  for  sale,  it  would  command  a  heavy  premium. 
The  scattering  investments,  too,  which  yielded  an 
average  of  five  per  cent.,  must  be  worth  a  good  deal 
more  than  their  face.  What  he  didn't  like  about 
the  thing  was  that  big  block  of  Thessaly  Manufac 
turing  Company  stock.  That  seemed  to  be  earning 
nothing  at  all ;  he  could  find  no  record  of  dividends, 
or,  in  truth,  any  information  whatever  about  it. 
Where  had  he  heard  about  that  company  before  ? 
The  name  was  curiously  familiar  to  his  mind  ;  he 
had  been  told  something  about  it — by  whom  ? 

All  at  once  it  flashed  upon  him.  That  was  the 
company  of  which  the  mysterious  Judge  Wendover 
was  president.  Tenney  had  talked  about  it  ;  Ten- 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the.  Adventure.        179 

ney  had  told  him  that  he  would  hear  a  good  deal 
about  it  before  long. 

As  these  reflections  rose  in  the  young  man's  mind, 
the  figures  which  he  had  written  down  on  the  paper 
seemed  to  diminish  in  size  and  significance.  It  was 
a  queer  notion,  but  he  couldn't  help  feeling  that 
the  millions  had  somehow  moved  themselves  far 
ther  back,  out  of  his  reach.  The  thought  of  these 
two  men — of  the  gray-eyed,  thin-lipped,  abnormally 
smart  Tenney,  and  of  that  shadowy  New  York 
financier  who  shared  his  secrets — made  him  nervous. 
They  had  a  purpose,  and  he  was  more  or  less  linked 
to  it  and  to  them,  and  Heaven  only  knew  where  he 
might  be  dragged  in  the  dark.  He  finished  his 
glass  and  resolved  that  he  would  no  longer  remain 
in  the  dark.  To-morrow  he  would  see  Tenney  and 
Mrs.  Minster  and  Reuben,  and  have  a  clear  under 
standing  all  around. 

There  came  sharp  and  loud  upon  his  door  a  per 
emptory  knocking,  and  Horace  with  a  swift  move 
ment  slipped  the  paper  on  which  he  had  made  the 
figures  into  the  box,  and  noiselessly  closed  the  cover. 
Then  he  opened  the  door,  and  discovered  before 
him  a  man  whom  for  the  instant,  in  the  dim  light  of 
the  hall,  he  did  not  recognize.  The  man  advanced 
a  step,  and  then  Horace  saw  that  it  was — strangely 
changed  and  unlike  himself — his  father  ! 

"  I  didn't  hear  you  come  in,"  said  the  young  man, 
vaguely  confused  by  the  altered  appearance  of  the 
General,  and  trying  in  some  agitation  of  mind  to 
define  the  change  and  to  guess  what  it  portended. 


i8o  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"They  told  me  you  were  here,"  said  the  father, 
moving  lumpishly  forward  into  the  room,  and  sink 
ing  into  a  chair.  "  I'm  glad  of  it.  I  want  to  talk 
to  you." 

His  voice  had  suddenly  grown  muffled,  as  if  with 
age  or  utter  weariness.  His  hands  lay  palm  upward 
and  inert  on  his  fat  knees,  and  he  buried  his  chin  in 
his  collar  helplessly.  The  gaze  which  he  fastened 
opaquely  upon  the  waste-paper  basket,  and  the 
posture  of  his  relaxed  body,  suggested  to  Horace  a 
simple  explanation.  Evidently  this  was  the  way 
his  delightful  progenitor  looked  when  he  was  drunk. 
It  was  not  a  nice  sight. 

"  Wouldn't  it  be  better  to  go  to  bed  now,  and  talk 
afterward  ?  "  said  the  young  man,  with  asperity. 

The  General  looked  up  at  his  son.  He  clearly 
understood  the  purport  of  the  question,  and  gath 
ered  his  brows  at  first  in  a  half-scowl.  Then  the 
humor  of  the  position  appealed  to  him,  and  he  smiled 
instead — a  grim  and  terrifying  smile  which  seemed 
to  darken  rather  than  illumine  his  purplish  face. 

"  Did  you  think  I  was  drunk,  that  you  should 
say  that?"  he  asked,  with  the  ominous  smile  still  on 
his  lips.  He  added,  more  slowly,  and  with  some 
thing  of  his  old  dignity  :  "  No — I'm  merely  ruined  !  " 

"It  has  come,  has  it?"  The  young  man  heard 
himself  saying  these  words,  but  they  sounded  as  if 
they  had  issued  from  other  lips  than  his.  He  had 
schooled  himself  for  a  fortnight  to  realize  that  his 
father  was  actually  insolvent,  yet  the  shock  seemed 
to  find  him  all  unprepared. 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the  Adventure.        181 

"  Then  you  expected  it  ?     You  knew  about  it  ?  " 

"  Tenney  told  me  last  month  that  it  must  come, 
sooner  or  later." 

The  General  offered  an  invocation  as  to  Mr.  Ten- 
ney's  present  existence  and  future  state  which, 
solemnly  impressive  though  it  was,  may  not  be  set 
down  here. 

"  So  I  say,  too,  if  you  like,"  answered  Horace,  be 
ginning  to  pace  the  room.  "  But  that  will  hardly  help 
us  just  now.  Tell  me  just  what  has  happened." 

"  Sit  down,  then  :  you  make  me  nervous,  tramp 
ing  about  like  that.  The  villain  simply  asked  me  to 
step  into  the  office  for  a  minute,  and  then  took  out 
his  note-book,  cool  as  a  cucumber.  *  I  thought  I'd 
call  your  attention  to  how  things  stand  between  us,' 
he  said,  as  if  I'd  been  a  country  customer  who  was 
behindhand  with  his  paper.  Then  the  scoundrel 
calmly  went  on  to  say  that  my  interest  in  the  part 
nership  was  worth  less  than  nothing ;  that  I  already 
owed  him  more  than  the  interest  would  come  to,  if 
the  business  were  sold  out,  and  that  he  would  like 
to  know  what  I  proposed  to  do  about  it.  By  Hea 
ven  !  that's  what  he  said  to  me,  and  I  sat  there  and 
listened  to  him." 

"  What  did  you  say?" 

"  I  told  him  what  I  thought  of  him.  He  hasn't 
heard  so  much  straight,  solid  truth  about  himself 
before  since  he  was  weaned,  /'//  bet !  " 

"  But  what  good  was  that  ?  He  isn't  the  sort  who 
minds  that  kind  of  thing.  What  did  you  tell  him 
you  would  do  ?  " 


1 82  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Break  his  infernal  skull  for  him  if  he  ever  spoke 
to  me  again  !  " 

Horace  almost  smiled,  as  he  felt  how  much  older 
he  was  than  this  red-faced,  white-haired  boy,  who 
could  fight  and  drink  and  tell  funny  stories,  world 
without  end,  but  was  powerless  to  understand  busi 
ness  even  to  the  extent  of  protecting  his  interest  in 
a  hardware  store.  But  the  tendency  to  smile  was 
painfully  short-lived  ;  the  subject  was  too  serious. 

"  Well,  tell  me,  then,  what  you  are  going  to  do  !  " 

"  Good  God  !  "  broke  forth  the  General,  raising  his 
head  again.  "  What  can  I  do  !  Crawl  into  a  hole  and 
die  somewhere,  I  should  think.  I  don't  see  any 
thing  else.  But  before  I  do,  mark  me,  I'll  have  a 
few  minutes  alone  with  that  scoundrel,  in  his  office, 
in  the  street,  wherever  I  can  find  him  ;  and  if  I  don't 
fix  him  up  so  that  his  own  mother  won't  know  him, 
then  my  name  isn't  '  Vane  '  Boyce  !  " 

"  Tut-tut,"  said  the  prudent  lawyer  of  the  family. 
"  Men  don't  die  because  they  fail  in  the  hardware 
business,  and  this  isn't  Kentucky.  We  don't  thrash 
our  enemies  up  here  in  the  North.  Do  you  want 
me  to  see  Tenney  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  so — if  you  can  stomach  a  talk  with  the 
whelp.  He  said  something,  too,  about  talking  it 
over  with  you,  but  I  was  too  raving  mad  to  listen. 
Have  you  had  any  dealings  with  h'im  ?  " 

"  Nothing  definite.  We've  discussed  one  or  two 
little  things — in  the  air — that  is  all." 

The  General  rose  and  helped  himself  to  some  neat 
brandy  from  his  son's  /tgueur-sta.nd.  "  Well,  if  you 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the  Adventure.        183 

do — you  hear  me — he'll  singe  you  clean  as  a  whistle. 
By  God,  he  won't  leave  so  much  as  a  pin-feather  on 
you  !  " 

Horace  smiled  incredulously.  "  I  rather  think  I 
can  take  care  of  Mr.  Schuyler  Tenney,"  said  he,  with 
a  confident  front.  "  I'll  go  down  and  see  him  now, 
if  you  like,  and  don't  you  worry  yourself  about  it. 
I  daresay  I  can  straighten  it  out  all  right.  The  best 
thing  you  can  do  is  to  say  nothing  at  all  about  your 
affairs  to  anybody.  It  might  complicate  matters  if 
he  heard  that  you  had  been  publicly  proclaiming 
your  intention  of  beating  him  into  a  jelly.  I  don't 
know,  but  I  can  fancy  that  he  might  not  altogether 
like  that.  And,  above  all  things,  don't  get  down  on 
your  luck.  I  guess  we  can  keep  our  heads  above 
water,  Tenney  or  no  Tenney." 

The  young  man  felt  that  it  was  distinctly  decent 
of  him  to  thus  assume  responsibility  for  the  family, 
and  did  not  look  to  see  the  General  take  it  so  much 
as  a  matter  of  course.  But  that  distinguished  sol 
dier  had  quite  regained  his  spirits,  and  smacked  his 
lips  over  a  second  glass  of  brandy  with  smiling  satis 
faction,  as  if  Tenney  had  already  been  turned  out  of 
the  hardware  store,  neck  and  crop. 

"  All  right !  You  go  ahead,  and  let  him  have  it 
from  the  shoulder.  Give  him  one  for  me,  while 
you're  about  it,"  he  said,  with  his  old  robust  voice 
and  hearty  manner  all  come  back  again.  The  elas 
ticity  of  this  stout  man's  temperament  was  a  source 
of  perpetual  wonderment  to  his  slender  son. 

Yet    Horace,    too,  had    much    the    same  singular 


1 84  The  Lawton  Girl. 

capacity  for  shaking  off  trouble,  and  he  saw  matters 
in  quite  a  hopeful  light  as  he  strode  along  down 
toward  Main  Street.  Clearly  Tenney  had  only 
meant  to  frighten  the  General. 

He  found  his  father's  partner  in  the  little  office 
boxed  off  the  store,  and  had  a  long  talk  with  him— 
a  talk  prolonged,  in  fact,  until  after  business  hours. 
When  he  reflected  upon  this  conversation  during  his 
homeward  journey,  he  could  recall  most  distinctly 
that  he  had  told  Tenney  everything  about  the  Min 
sters  which  the  search  of  the  papers  revealed.  Some 
how,  the  rest  of  the  talk  had  not  seemed  to  be  very 
important.  Tenney  had  laughed  lightly  when  the 
question  of  the  General  came  up,  and  said  :  "  Oh, 
you  needn't  bother  about  that.  I  only  wanted  him 
to  know  how  things  stood.  He  can  go  on  as  long  as 
he  likes  ;  that  is,  of  course,  if  you  and  I  continue  to 
work  together."  And  Horace  had  said  that  he  was 
much  obliged,  and  would  be  glad  to  work  with  Mr. 
Tenney — and  really  that  had  been  the  sum  of  the 
whole  conversation. 

Or  yes,  there  had  been  one  other  thing.  Tenney 
had  said  that  it  would  be  best  now  to  tell  Reuben 
Tracy  that  Mrs.  Minster  had  turned  over  her  affairs 
to  him — temporarily,  at  least— but  not  to  discuss 
them  with  him  at  all,  and  not  to  act  as  if  he  thought 
they  were  of  special  importance. 

Horace  felt  that  this  could  easily  be  done.  Reu- 
.ben  was  the  least  suspicious  man  in  the  world,  and 
the  matter  might  be  so  stated  to  him  that  he  would 
never  give  it  a  second  thought. 


Horace  Embarks  upon  the  Adventure.        185 

The  General  received  over  the  supper-table  the 
tidings  that  no  evil  was  intended  to  him,  much  as 
his  son  had  expected  him  to ;  that  is,  with  perfectly 
restored  equanimity.  He  even  admitted  that  Ten- 
ney  was  within  his  rights  to  speak  as  he  did,  and 
that  there  should  be  no  friction  provoked  by  any 
word  or  act  of  his. 

"  I  don't  like  the  man,  you  know,"  he  said,  between 
mouthfuls,  "but  it's  just  as  well  that  I  should  stick 
by  him.  He's  skinned  me  dry,  and  my  only  chance 
is  now  to  keep  friendly  with  him,  in  the  hope  that 
when  he  begins  skinning  other  people  he'll  let  me 
make  myself  good  out  of  the  proceeds." 

This  worldly  wisdom,  emanating  from  such  an 
unlikely  source,  surprised  the  young  man,  and  he 
looked  up  with  interest  to  his  father's  face,  red- 
shining  under  the  lamplight. 

"  I  mean  what  I  say,"  continued  the  General,  who 
ate  with  unfailing  gusto  as  he  talked.  "  Tenney  as 
much  as  said  that  to  me  himself,  awhile  ago." 

Horace  nodded  with  comprehension.  He  had 
thought  the  aphorism  too  concise  and  strong  for  his 
father's  invention. 

"  And  I  could  guess  with  my  eyes  shut  how  he's 
going  to  do  it,"  the  elder  Boyce  went  on.  "  He's 
got  a  lot  of  the  stock  of  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing 
Company,  the  one  that's  built  the  rolling  mills  in 
connection  with  the  Minster  iron-works,  and  the  rest 
of  the  stock  is  held  in  New  York  ;  and  some  fine  day - 
the  New  Yorkers  will  wake  up  and  find  themselves 
cleaned  out.  Oh,  I  know  Mr.  Tenney's  little  ways  !  " 


1 86  The  Lawton  Girl. 

The  General  wagged  his  round  head  upon  its  thick 
neck  with  complacency  at  his  superior  insight,  but 
Horace  finished  his  supper  in  silence.  He  did  not 
see  very  far  into  the  millstone  yet,  but  already  he 
guessed  that  the  stockholders  who  were  to  be  de 
spoiled  lived  in  Thessaly  and  not  New  York.  A 
strange,  amorphous  vision  of  the  looting  of  the  mill 
ions  arose  like  a  mirage  between  him  and  the  shaded 
lamplight,  and  he  looked  into  its  convolving  vortex 
half  in  terror,  half  in  trembling  fascination. 

Suddenly  he  felt  himself  impelled  to  say — why  he 
could  not  tell — "  I  might  as  well  speak  to  you  about 
it.  It  is  my  ambition  to  marry  Miss  Kate  Minster. 
I  think  I  shall  succeed." 

The  General  almost  upset  his  chair  in  his  eager 
ness  to  rise,  lean  over  the  table,  and  shake  hands 
with  his  son. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

•*. 

THE    LAWTON    GIRL'S    WORK. 

FORTUNATELY  Jessica  Lawton's  humble  little 
business  enterprise  began  to  bring  in  returns  before 
her  slender  store  of  money  was  quite  exhausted. 
Even  more  fortunate,  at  least  in  her  estimation,  was 
the  fact  that  the  lion's  share  of  this  welcome  patron 
age  came  from  the  poor  working-girls  of  the  village. 
When  the  venture  was  a  month  old,  there  was  nearly 
enough  work  to  occupy  all  her  time,  and,  taking 
into  account  the  season,  this  warranted  her  in  believ 
ing  that  she  had  succeeded. 

The  result  had  not  come  without  many  anxious 
days,  made  bitter  alike  by  despairing  tremors  for  the 
future  and  burning  indignation  at  the  insults  and 
injuries  of  the  present.  Now  that  these  had  in  a 
measure  abated,  she  felt,  in  looking  back  upon 
them,  that  the  fear  of  failure  was  always  the  least  of 
her  troubles.  At  the  worst,  the  stock  which,  through 
Mrs.  Fairchild's  practical  kindness,  she  had  been  able 
to  bring  from  Tecumseh,  could  be  sold  for  something 
like  its  cost.  Her  father's  help  had  sufficed  for 
nearly  all  the  changes  needed  in  the  small  tenement, 
and  she  had  money  enough  to  pay  the  rent  until 
May. 


1 88  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

The  taking  over  of  Lucinda  was  a  more  serious 
matter,  for  the  girl  had  been  a  wage-earner,  and 
would  be  entitled  to  complain  if  it  turned  out  that 
she  had  been  decoyed  away  from  the  factory  on  an 
empty  promise.  But  Lucinda,  so  far  from  complain 
ing,  seemed  exceptionally  contented.  It  was  true 
that  she  gave  no  promise  of  ever  acquiring  skill  as  a 
milliner,  and  she  was  not  infrequently  restless  under 
the  discipline  which  Jessica,  with  perhaps  exagger 
ated  caution,  strove  to  impose,  but  she  worked  with 
great  diligence  in  their  tiny  kitchen,  and  served  cus 
tomers  in  the  store  with  enthusiasm  if  not  finesse. 
The  task  of  drilling  her  into  that  habit  of  mind 
which  considers  finger-nails  and  is  mindful  of  soap 
was  distinctly  onerous,  and  even  now  had  reached 
only  a  stage  in  which  progress  might  be  reported ; 
but  much  could  be  forgiven  a  girl  who  was  so  cheer 
ful  and  who  really  tried  so  hard  to  do  her  share. 

As  for  the  disagreeable  experiences,  which  had 
once  or  twice  been  literally  terrifying,  the  girl  still 
grew  sick  at  heart  with  rage  and  shame  and  fear  that 
they  might  jeopardize  her  plans,  when  she  thought 
of  them.  In  their  ruder  aspects  they  were  divisible 
into  two  classes.  A  number  of  young  men,  some 
times  in  groups  of  twos  or  threes,  but  more  often 
furtively  and  alone,  had  offensively  sought  to  make 
themselves  at  home  in  the  store,  and  had  even 
pounded  on  the  door  in  the  evening  after  it  was 
shut  and  bolted ;  a  somewhat  larger  number  of 
rough  factory-girls,  or  idlers  of  the  factory-girl  class, 
had  come  from  time  to  time  with  the  obvious  inten- 


The  Lawton  Girl's   Work.  189 

tion  of  insulting  her.  These  latter  always  appeared 
in  gangs,  and  supported  one  another  in  cruel  gig 
gling  and  in  coarse  inquiries  and  remarks. 

After  a  few  painfully  futile  attempts  to  meet  and 
rebuff  these  hostile  waves,  Jessica  gave  up  the  effort, 
and  arranged  matters  so  that  she  could  work  in  the 
living-room  beyond,  within  call  if  she  were  needed, 
but  out  of  the  visual  range  of  her  persecutors.  Lu- 
cinda  encountered  them  instead,  and  gave  homely 
but  vigorous  Rolands  for  their  Olivers.  It  was  in 
the  interchange  of  these  remarks  that  the  chief  dan 
ger  to  the  struggling  little  business  lay,  for  if  genuine 
customers  heard  them,  why,  there  was  an  end  to 
everything.  It  is  not  easy  to  portray  the  girl's  re 
lief  as  week  after  week  went  by,  and  time  brought 
not  only  no  open  scandal,  but  a  marked  diminution 
of  annoyance.  When  Jessica  was  no  longer  visible, 
interest  in  the  sport  lagged.  To  come  merely  for 
the  sake  of  baiting  Lucinda  was  not  worth  the  while. 
And  when  these  unfriendly  visits  slackened,  and 
then  fell  off  almost  altogether,  Jessica  hugged  to  her 
breast  the  notion  that  it  was  because  these  rough 
young  people  had  softened  toward  and  begun  to 
understand  and  sympathize  with  her. 

It  was  the  easier  to  credit  this  kindly  hypothesis 
in  that  she  had  already  won  the  suffrages  of  a  con 
siderable  circle  of  working-girls.  To  explain  how 
this  came  about  would  be  to  analyze  many  curious 
and  apparently  contradictory  phases  of  untutored 
human  nature,  and  to  recount  many  harmless  little 
stratagems  and  well-meant  devices,  and  many  other 


190  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

frankly  generous  words  and  actions  which  came  from 
hearts  not  the  less  warm  because  they  beat  amid  the 
busy  whir  of  the  looms,  or  throbbed  to  the  time  of 
the  seamstress's  needle. 

Jessica's  own  heart  was  uplifted  with  exultation, 
sometimes,  when  she  thought  upon  the  friendliness 
of  these  girls.  So  far  as  she  knew  and  believed, 
every  one  of  them  was  informed  as  to  her  past,  and 
there  was  no  reason  beyond  their  own  inclination 
why  they  should  take  stock  in  her  intentions  for  the 
future.  To  a  slender  few,  originally  suggested  by 
Lucinda,  and  then  confirmed  by  her  own  careful 
scrutiny,  she  had  confided  the  crude  outlines  of  her 
scheme — that  is,  to  build  up  a  following  among  the 
toilers  of  her  own  sex,  to  ask  from  this  following  no 
more  than  a  decent  living  for  work  done,  and  to 
make  this  work  include  not  merely  the  details  of 
millinery  and  hints  about  dress,  but  a  general  men 
tal  and  material  helpfulness,  to  take  practical  form 
step  by  step  as  the  means  came  to  hand  and  the 
girls  themselves  were  ready  for  the  development. 
Whenever  she  had  tried  to  put  this  into  words,  its 
melancholy  vagueness  had  been  freshly  apparent  to 
her,  but  the  girls  had  believed  in  her !  That  was 
the  great  thing. 

And  they  had  brought  others,  and  spread  the 
favorable  report  about,  until  even  now,  in  the  dead 
season,  lying  half  way  between  Christmas  and  the 
beginning  of  Lent,  she  was  kept  quite  busy.  To  be 
sure,  her  patrons  were  not  governed  much  by  these 
holiday  dates  at  any  time,  and  she  was  undoubtedly 


The  Lawton  GirTs   Work.  igl 

doing  their  work  better  and  more  cheaply  than  it 
could  ever  have  been  done  for  them  before,  but  their 
good  spirit  in  bringing  it  was  none  the  less  evident 
for  that. 

And  out  of  the  contact  with  this  good  spirit,  Jes 
sica  began  to  be  dimly  conscious  of  getting  great 
stores  of  strength  for  herself.  If  it  could  be  all  like 
this,  she  felt  that  her  life  would  be  ideally  happy. 
She  had  not  the  skill  of  mind  to  separate  her  feel 
ings,  and  contrast  and  weigh  them  one  against  the 
other,  but  she  knew  clearly  enough  that  she  was 
doing  what  afforded  her  keen  enjoyment,  and  it 
began  to  be  apparent  that  merely  by  doing  it  she 
would  come  to  see  more  clearly,  day  by  day,  how  to 
expand  and  ennoble  her  work.  The  mission  which 
Annie  Fairchild  had  urged  upon  her  and  labored  to 
fit  her  for,  and  which  she  had  embraced  and  em 
barked  upon  with  only  the  vaguest  ideas  as  to  means 
or  details  or  specific  aims,  was  unfolding  itself  in- 
spiringly  before  her. 

During  this  period  she  wrote  daily  to  the  good 
woman  who  had  sent  her  upon  this  work — short  let 
ters  setting  forth  tersely  the  events  and  outcome  of 
the  day — and  the  answers  which  came  twice  a  week 
helped  greatly  to  strengthen  her. 

And  do  not  doubt  that  often  she  stood  in  grave 
need  of  strength!  The  mere  matter  of  regular  em 
ployment  itself  was  still  more  or  less  of  a  novelty  to 
her;  regular  hours  still  found  her  physically  rebel 
lious.  The  restraints  of  a  shop,  of  studied  demeanor, 
of  frugal  meals,  of  no  intimate  society  save  that  of 


192  The  Lawton  Girl. 

one  dull  girl, — these  still  wore  gratingly  upon  her 
nerves,  and  produced  periodical  spasms  of  depres 
sion  and  gloom,  in  which  she  was  much  tortured  by 
doubts  about  herself  and  the  utility  of  what  she  was 
doing. 

Sometimes,  too,  these  doubts  took  the  positive 
form  of  temptation — of  a  wild  kind  of  longing  to 
get  back  again  into  the  atmosphere  where  bright 
lights  shone  on  beautiful  dresses,  and  the  hours  went 
swiftly,  gayly  by  with  jest,  and  song,  and  the  sparkle 
of  the  amber  air-beads  rising  in  the  tall  wine-glasses. 
There  came  always  afterward  the  memory  of  those 
other  hours  which  dragged  most  gruesomely,  when 
the  daylight  made  all  tawdry  and  hateful  once  more, 
and  heartaches  ruled  where  smiles  had  been.  Yet 
still  these  unbidden  yearnings  would  come,  and  then 
the  girl  would  set  her  teeth  tight  together,  and 
thrust  her  needle  through  the  mutinous  tears  till 
they  were  exorcised. 

It  had  been  in  her  unshaped  original  plan  to  do  a 
good  deal  for  her  father,  but  this  proved  to  be  more 
easily  contemplated  than  done.  Once  the  little 
rooms  had  been  made  habitable  for  her  and  Lu- 
cinda,  there  remained  next  to  nothing  for  him  to 
do.  He  came  around  every  morning,  when  some 
extraordinary  event,  such  as  a  job  of  work  or  a  fire, 
did  not  interfere,  and  offered  his  services,  but  he 
knew  as  well  as  they  did  that  this  was  a  mere  ami 
able  formality.  He  developed  a  great  fondness  for 
sitting  by  the  stove  in  Jessica's  small  working  room, 
and  either  watching  her  industrious  fingers  or  sleep- 


The  Law  ton  Girl's   Work.  193 

ing  calmly  in  his  chair.  Perhaps  the  filial  instinct 
was  not  strong  in  Lucinda's  composition  ;  perhaps 
it  had  been  satiated  by  over-close  contact  during 
those  five  years  of  Jessica's  absence.  At  any  rate, 
the  younger  girl  did  not  enjoy  Ben's  presence  as 
much  as  her  sister  seemed  to,  and  almost  daily  de 
tracted  from  his  comfort  by  suggestions  that  the 
apartments  were  very  small,  and  that  a  man  hang 
ing  around  all  day  took  up  a  deplorable  amount  of 
room. 

It  had  been  Jessica's  notion,  too,  that  she  and  her 
sister  would  walk  out  in  the  evenings  under  the 
escort  of  their  father,  and  thus  secure  themselves 
from  misapprehension.  But  Lucinda  rebelled  flatly 
against  this,  at  least  until  Ben  had  some  new  clothes, 
and  the  money  for  these  was  not  forthcoming.  Jes 
sica  did  find  it  possible  to  spare  a  dollar  or  so  to  her 
father  weekly,  and  there  had  been  a  nebulous  under 
standing  that  this  was  to  be  applied  to  raiment ;  but 
the  only  change  in  his  appearance  effected  by  this  so 
far  had  been  a  sporadic  accession  of  startlingly  white 
paper  collars. 

There  were  other  minor  disappointments — por 
tions  of  her  plan,  so  to  speak,  which  had  failed  to 
materialize — but  the  net  result  of  a  month's  trial 
was  distinctly  hopeful.  Although  most  of  such 
work  as  had  come  to  her  was  from  the  factory-girls, 
not  a  few  ladies  had  visited  the  little  store,  and 
made  purchases  or  given  orders.  Among  these  she 
liked  best  of  all  the  one  who  owned  the  house  ;  a 
very  friendly  old  person,  with  corkscrew  curls  and  an 


1 94  The  Lawton  Girl. 

endless  tongue — Miss  Tabitha  Wilcox.  She  had 
already  made  two  bonnets  for  her,  and  the  elderly 
lady  had  been  so  pleasant  and  talkative  that  she  had 
half  resolved,  when  next  she  came  in,  to  unfold  to 
her  the  scheme  which  now  lay  nearest  to  her  heart. 

This  was  nothing  less  than  securing  permission  to 
use  a  long-deserted  and  roomy  building  which  stood 
in  the  yard,  at  the  back  of  the  one  she  occupied,  as 
a  sort  of  evening  club  for  the  working-girls  of  the 
town.  Jessica  had  never  been  in  this  building,  but 
so  far  as  she  could  see  through  the  stained  and  dis 
mantled  windows,  where  the  drifts  did  not  render 
approach  impossible,  it  had  formerly  been  a  dwell 
ing-house,  and  later  had  been  used  in  part  as  a 
carpenter's  shop. 

To  get  this,  and  to  fit  it.  up  simply  but  comfort 
ably  as  a  place  where  the  tired  factory  and  sewing 
girls  could  come  in  the  evening,  to  read  or  talk  or 
play  games  if  they  liked,  to  merely  sit  still  and  rest 
if  they  chose,  but  in  either  case  to  be  warm  and  con 
tented  and  sheltered  from  the  streets  and  the  deadly 
boredom  of  squalid  lodgings,  became  little  by  little 
her  abiding  ambition.  She  had  spoken  tentatively 
to  some  of  the  girls  about  it,  and  they  were  all  pro 
foundly  enthusiastic  over  the  plan. 

It  remained  to  enlist  the  more  fortunate  women 
whose  assistance  could  alone  make  the  plan  feasible. 
Jessica  had  essayed  to  get  at  the  parson's  wife,  Mrs. 
Turner;  but  that  lady,  after  having  been  extremely 
cordial,  had  unaccountably  all  at  once  turned  icy 
cold,  and  cut  the  girl  dead  in  the  street.  I  said 


The  Lawton  GirVs  Work.  19$ 

"  unaccountably,"  but  Jessica  was  not  at  all  at  a  loss 
to  comprehend  the  change,  and  the  bitterness  of  the 
revelation  had  thrown  her  into  an  unusually  deep  fit 
of  depression.  For  a  time  it  had  seemed  to  her 
hopeless  to  try  to  find  another  confidante  in  that 
class  which  despised  and  shrank  from  her.  Then 
Miss  Tabitha's  pleasant  words  and  transparent  good- 
heartedness  had  lifted  her  out  of  her  despondency, 
and  she  was  almost  resolved  now  to  approach  heron 
the  subject  of  the  house  in  the  back  yard. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A    GRACIOUS   FRIEND    RAISED    UP. 

THE  opportunity  which  Jessica  sought  came  with 
unlooked-for  promptness — in  fact,  before  she  had 
quite  resolved  what  to  ask  for,  and  how  best  to  pre 
fer  her  request. 

It  was  a  warm,  sunny  winter  morning,  with  an 
atmosphere  which  suggested  the  languor  of  May 
rather  than  the  eagerness  of  early  spring,  and  which 
was  already  in  these  few  matutinal  hours  playing 
havoc  with  the  snowbanks.  The  effects  of  the  thaw 
were  unpleasantly  visible  on  the  sidewalks,  where 
deep  puddles  were  forming  as  the  drifts  melted 
away,  and  the  back  yard  was  one  large  expanse  of 
treacherous  slush.  Jessica  had  hoped  that  her  father 
would  come,  in  order  that  he  might  cut  away  the 
ice  and  snow  in  front,  and  thus  drain  the  walk  for 
passers-by.  But  as  the  mild  morning  air  rendered  it 
unnecessary  to  seek  the  comfort  of  a  seat  by  the 
stove,  Ben  preferred  to  lounge  about  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  hay-market,  exchanging  indolent  jokes  with 
kindred  idlers,  and  vaguely  enjoying  the  sunshine. 

Samantha,  however,  chose  this  forenoon  for  her 
first  visit  to  the  milliner's  shop,  and  showed  a  dis 
position  to  make  herself  very  much  at  home.  The 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  197 

fact  that  encouragement  was  plainly  wanting  did  not 
in  any  way  abash  her.  Lucinda  told  her  flatly  that 
she  had  only  come  to  see  what  she  could  pick  up, 
and  charged  her  to  her  face  with  having  instigated 
her  friends  to  offer  them  annoyance  and  affront. 
Samantha  denied  both  imputations  with  fervor,  the 
while  she  tried  on  before  the  mirror  a  bronze-velvet 
toque  with  sage-green  feathers. 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  ever  quite  believed  that  of 
you,  Samantha,"  said  Jessica,  turning  from  her  dis 
mayed  contemplation  of  the  water  on  the  sidewalk. 
"  And  if  you  really  want  to  be  friendly,  why,  you  are 
welcome  to  come  here.  But  I  have  heard  of  things 
you  have  said  that  were  not  at  all  nice." 

"  All  lies !  "  remarked  Samantha,  studying  the 
effect  of  the  hat  as  nearly  in  a  profile  view  as  she 
could  manage  with  a  single  glass.  "  You  can't  be 
lieve  a  word  you  hear  here  in  Thessaly.  Wouldn't 
this  go  better  if  there  was  some  yellow  put  in  there, 
close  by  the  feathers?" 

"  I  didn't  want  to  believe  it,"  said  Jessica.  "  I've 
never  done  you  any  harm,  and  never  wished  any 
thing  but  well  by  you,  and  I  couldn't  see  why  you 
should  want  to  injure  me." 

"  Don't  I  tell  you  they  lied?"  responded  Saman 
tha,  affably.  "  'Cindy,  here,  is  always  blackguard 
ing  me.  You  know  you  always  did,"  she  added,  in 
passing  comment  upon  Lucinda's  indignant  snort, 
"but  I  don't  bear  no  malice.  It  ain't  my  nature  to. 
I  suppose  a  hat  like  this  comes  pretty  high,  don't 
it?" 


198  The  Lawton  Girl. 

As  she  spoke,  a  sleigh  was  driven  up  with  some 
difficulty  through  the  yielding  snowbanks,  and 
stopped  close  to  the  sidewalk  in  front  of  the  shop. 
It  was  by  far  the  most  distinguished-looking  sleigh 
Jessica  had  seen  in  Thessaly.  The  driver  on  the 
front  seat  bore  a  cockade  proudly  in  his  high  hat, 
and  the  horses  he  controlled  were  superbly  matched 
creatures,  with  glossy  silver-mounted  harness,  and 
with  tails  neatly  braided  and  tied  up  in  ribbons  for 
protection  from  the  slush.  A  costly  silver-fox  wrap 
depended  over  the  back  of  the  cutter,  and  a  robe  of 
some  darker  but  equally  sumptuous  fur  enfolded  the 
two  ladies  who  sat  in  the  second  seat. 

Jessica  was  glad  that  so  splendid  an  equipage 
should  have  drawn  up  at  her  door,  with  a  new-born 
commercial  instinct,  even  before  she  recognized 
either  occupant  of  the  sleigh. 

"  That's  Kate  Minster,"  said  Samantha,  still  with 
the  hat  of  her  dreams  on  her  head,  "  the  handsomest 
girl  in  Thessaly,  and  the  richest,  and  the  stuck-up- 
edest.  Cracky  !  but  you're  in  luck  !  " 

Jessica  did  not  know  much  about  the  Minsters, 
but  she  now  saw  that  the  other  lady,  who  was  al 
ready  preparing  to  descend,  and  stood  poised  on  the 
rail  of  the  cutter  looking  timorously  at  the  water  on 
the  walk,  was  no  other  than  Miss  Tabitha  Wilcox. 

She  turned  with  quick  decision  to  Samantha. 

"  I  will  give  you  that  hat  you've  got  on,"  she  said 
in  a  hurried  tone,  "  if  you'll  go  with  Lucinda  clear 
back  into  the  kitchen  and  shut  both  doors  tight 
after  you,  and  stay  there  till  I  call  you." 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  199 

At  this  considerable  sacrifice  the  store  was  cleared 
for  the  reception  of  these  visitors — the  most  impor 
tant  who  had  as  yet  crossed  its  threshold. 

Miss  Tabitha  did  not  offer  to  introduce  her  com 
panion — whom  Jessica  noted  furtively  as  a  tall, 
stately,  dark  girl,  with  a  wonderfully  handsome  face, 
who  stood  silently  by  the  little  showcase  and  was 
wrapped  in  furs  worth  the  whole  stock  of  millinery 
she  confronted — but  bustled  about  the  store,  while 
she  plunged  into  the  middle  of  an  explanation  about 
hats  she  had  had,  hats  she  thought  of  having,  and 
hats  she  might  have  had,  of  which  the  milliner 
understood  not  a  word.  It  was  not,  indeed,  essen 
tial  that  she  should,  for  presently  Tabitha  stopped 
short,  looked  about  her  triumphantly,  and  asked  : 

"  Now,  wasn't  I  right  ?  Aren't  they  the  nicest  in 
town  ?  " 

The  tall  girl  smiled,  and  inclined  her  dignified 
head. 

"  They  are  very  pretty,  indeed,"  she  answered, 
and  Jessica  remarked  to  herself  what  a  soft,  rich 
voice  it  was,  that  made  even  those  commonplace 
words  so  delightful  to  the  ear. 

"  I  don't  know  that  we  wanted  to  look  at  any 
thing  in  particular,"  rattled  on  Miss  Tabitha.  "  We 
were  driving  by  "  (O  Tabitha !  as  if  Miss  Kate  had 
not  commanded  this  excursion  for  no  other  purpose 
than  this  visit !)  "  and  I  just  thought  we'd  drop  in, 
for  I've  been  telling  Miss  Minster  about  what  ex 
cellent  taste  you  had." 

A    momentary   pause  ensued,  and    then    Jessica, 


2OO  The  Lawton  Girl. 

conscious  of  blushes  and  confusion,  made  bold  to 
unburden  her  mind  of  its  plan. 

"  I  wanted  to  speak  to  you,"  she  said,  falteringly 
at  first,  but  with  a  resolution  to  have  it  all  out, 
"  about  that  vacant  house  in  the  back  yard  here. 
It  looks  as  if  it  had  been  a  carpenter's  shop  last,  and 
it  seems  in  very  bad  repair." 

"  I  suppose  it  might  as  well  come  down,"  broke 
in  Miss  Wilcox.  "  Still,  I—" 

"  Oh,  no  !  that  wasn't  what  I  meant  !  "  protested 
Jessica.  "  I — I  wanted  to  propose  something  about 
it  to  you.  If — if  you  will  be  seated,  I  can  explain 
what  I  meant." 

The  two  ladies  took  chairs,  but  with  a  palpable 
accession  of  reserve  on  their  countenances.  The 
girl  went  on  to  explain  : 

"  To  begin  with,  the  factory-girls  and  sewing-girls 
here  spend  too  much  time  on  the  streets — I  sup 
pose  it  is  so  everywhere — the  girls  who  were 
thrown  out  when  the  match  factory  shut  down, 
particularly.  What  else  can  they  do  ?  There  is  no 
other  place.  Then  they  get  into  trouble,  or  at  any 
rate  they  learn  slangy  talk  and  coarse  ways.  But 
you  can't  blame  them,  for  their  homes,  when  they 
have  any,  are  not  pleasant  places,  and  where  they 
hire  rooms  it  is  almost  worse  still.  Now,  I've  been 
thinking  of  something — or,  rather,  it  isn't  my  own 
idea,  but  I'll  speak  about  that  later  on.  This  is  the 
idea :  I  have  come  to  know  a  good  many  of  the  best 
of  these  girls — perhaps  you  would  think  they  were 
the  worst,  too,  but  they're  not — and  I  know  they 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  201 

would  be  glad  of  some  good  place  where  they  could 
spend  their  evenings,  especially  in  the  winter,  where 
it  would  be  cosey  and  warm,  and  they  could  read  or 
talk,  or  bring  their  own  sewing  for  themselves,  and 
amuse  themselves  as  they  liked.  And  I  had  thought 
that  perhaps  that  old  house  could  be  fixed  up  so 
as  to  serve,  and  they  could  come  through  the  shop 
here  after  tea,  and  so  I  could  keep  track  of  them, 
don't  you  see  ?  " 

"  I  don't  quite  think  I  do,"  said  Miss  Tabitha, 
with  distinct  disapprobation.  The  other  lady  said 
nothing. 

Jessica  felt  her  heart  sink.  The  plan  had  seemed 
so  excellent  to  her,  and  yet  it  was  to  be  frowned 
down. 

"  Perhaps  I  haven't  made  it  clear  to  you,"  she 
ventured  to  say, 

"  Oh,  yes,  you  have,"  replied  Miss  Tabitha.  "I 
don't  mind  pulling  the  house  down,  but  to  make  it 
a  rendezvous  for  all  the  tag-rag  and  bob-tail  in  town 
— I  simply  couldn't  think  of  it  !  These  houses 
along  here  have  seen  their  best  days,  perhaps,  but 
they've  all  been  respectable,  always  !  " 

"  I  don't  think  myself  that  you  have  quite  grasped 
Miss  Lawton's  meaning." 

It  was  the  low,  full,  quiet  voice  of  the  beautiful 
fur-clad  lady  that  spoke,  and  Jessica  looked  at  her 
with  tears  of  anxious  gratitude  in  her  eyes. 

Miss  Minster  seemed  to  avoid  returning  the  glance, 
but  went  on  in  the  same  even,  musical  tone: 

"  It  appears  to  me  that  there  might  be  a  great 


2O2  The  Lawton  Girl. 

deal  of  much-needed  good  done  in  just  that  way, 
Tabitha.  The  young  lady  says — I  think  I  under 
stood  her  to  say — that  she  had  talked  with  some  of 
these  girls,  and  that  that  is  what  they  would  like. 
It  seems  to  me  only  common-sense,  if  you  want  to 
help  people,  to  help  them  in  their  own  way,  and  not 
insist,  instead,  that  it  shall  be  in  your  way — which 
really  is  no  help  at  all !  " 

"  Nobody  can  say,  I  hope,  that  I  have  ever  de 
clined  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to  anybody  who 
showed  a  proper  spirit,"  said  Miss  Wilcox,  with  dig 
nity,  putting  up  her  chin. 

"  I  know  that,  ma'am,"  pleaded  Jessica.  "  That 
is  why  I  felt  sure  you  would  like  my  plan.  I  ought 
to  tell  you — it  isn't  quite  my  plan.  It  was  Mrs. 
Fairchild,  at  Tecumseh,  who  used  to  teach  the 
Burfield  school,  who  suggested  it.  She  is  a  very, 
very  good  woman." 

"  And  I  think  it  is  a  very,  very  good  idea,"  said  Miss 
Kate,  speaking  for  the  first  time  directly  to  Jessica. 
"Of  course,  there  would  have  to  be  safeguards." 

"  You  have  no  conception  what  a  rough  lot  they 
are,"  said  Miss  Tabitha,  in  more  subdued  protest. 
"  There  is  no  telling  who  they  would  bring  here,  or 
what  they  wouldn't  do." 

"  Indeed,  I  am  sure  all  that  could  be  taken  care 
of,"  urged  Jessica,  taking  fresh  courage,  and  speak 
ing  now  to  both  her  visitors.  "  Only  those  whom  I 
knew  to  mean  well  by  the  undertaking  should  be 
made  members,  and  they  would  agree  to  very  strict 
rules,  I  feel  certain." 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  203 

"  Why,  child  alive !  where  would  you  get  the 
money  for  it,  even  if  it  could  be  done  otherwise  ?  " 
Miss  Tabitha  wagged  her  curls  conclusively,  but  her 
smile  was  not  unkind. 

It  would  not  be  exact  to  say  that  Jessica  had  not 
considered  this,  but,  as  it  was  now  presented,  it 
seemed  like  a  new  proposition.  She  was  not  ready 
to  answer  it. 

Miss  Wilcox  did  not  wait  over  long  for  a  reply, 
but  proceeded  to  point  out,  in  a  large  and  exhaus 
tive  way,  the  financial  impossibilities  of  the  plan. 
Jessica  had  neither  heart  nor  words  for  an  interrup 
tion,  and  Miss  Kate  listened  in  an  absent-minded 
manner,  her  eyes  on  the  plumes  and  velvets  in  the 
showcase. 

The  interruption  did  come  in  a  curiously  unex 
pected  fashion.  A  loud  stamping  of  wet  feet  was 
heard  on  the  step  outside  ;  then  the  door  from  the 
street  was  opened.  The  vehemence  of  the  call-bell's 
clamor  seemed  to  dismay  the  visitor,  or  perhaps  it 
was  the  presence  of  the  ladies.  At  all  events,  he 
took  off  his  hat,  as  if  it  had  been  a  parlor  instead  of 
a  shop,  and  made  an  awkward  inclusive  bow,  reach 
ing  one  hand  back  for  the  latch,  as  if  minded  to 
beat  a  retreat. 

"Why,  Mr.  Tracy!"  exclaimed  Tabitha,  rising 
from  her  chair. 

Reuben  advanced  now  and  shook  hands  with  both 
her  and  Jessica.  For  an  instant  the  silence  threat 
ened  to  be  embarrassing,  and  it  was  not  wholly  re 
lieved  when  Tabitha  presented  him  to  Miss  Minster, 


204  The  Lawton  Girl. 

and  that  young  lady  bowed  formally  without  mov 
ing  in  her  chair.  But  the  lawyer  could  not  suspect 
the  disagreeable  thoughts  which  were  chasing  one 
another  behind  these  two  unruffled  and  ladylike 
fronts,  and  it  was  evident  enough  that  his  coming 
was  welcome  to  the  mistress  of  the  little  shop. 

"I  have  wanted  to  look  in  upon  you  before,"  he 
said  to  Jessica,  "  and  I  am  ashamed  to  think  that  I 
haven't  done  so.  I  have  been  very  much  occupied 
with  other  matters.  It  doesn't  excuse  me  to  myself, 
but  it  may  to  you." 

"  Oh,  certainly,  Mr.  Tracy,"  Jessica  answered,  and 
then  realized  how  miserably  inadequate  the  words 
were.  "  It's  very  kind  of  you  to  come  at  all,"  she 
added. 

Tabitha  shot  a  swift  glance  at  her  companion,  and 
the  two  ladies  rose,  as  by  some  automatic  mechan 
ical  device,  absolutely  together. 

"  We  must  be  going,  Miss  Lawton,"  said  the  old 
maid,  primly. 

A  woman's  intuition  told  Jessica  that  something 
had  gone  wrong.  If  she  did  not  entirely  guess  the 
nature  of  the  trouble,  it  became  clear  enough  on 
the  instant  to  her  that  these  ladies  misinterpreted 
Reuben's  visit.  Perhaps  they  did  not  like  him — or 
perhaps —  She  stepped  toward  them  and  spoke 
eagerly,  before  she  had  followed  out  this  second 
hypothesis  in  her  mind. 

"  If  you  have  a  moment's  time  to  '  spare,"  she 
pleaded,  "  I  wish  you  would  let  me  explain  to  Mr. 
Tracy  the  plan  I  have  talked  over  with  you.  He 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  205 

was  my  school-teacher ;  he  is  my  oldest  friend — 
the  only  friend  I  had  when  I  was — a — a  girl,  and  I 
haven't  seen  him  before  since  the  day  I  arrived  home 
here.  I  should  so  much  like  to  have  you  hear  his 
opinion.  The  lady  I  spoke  of — Mrs.  Fairchild — 
wrote  to  him  about  me.  Perhaps  he  knows  of  the 
plan  already  from  her." 

Reuben  did  not  know  of  the  plan,  and  the  two 
ladies  consented  to  take  seats  again  while  it  should 
be  explained  to  him.  Tabitha  assumed  a  distant 
and  uneasy  expression  of  countenance,  and  looked 
straight  ahead  of  her  out  through  the  glass  door 
until  the  necessity  for  relief  by  conversation  swelled 
up  within  her  to  bursting  point;  for  Kate  had  rather 
flippantly  deserted  her,  and  so  far  from  listening 
with  haughty  reserve  under  protest,  had  actually 
joined  in  the  talk,  and  taken  up  the  thread  of  Jes 
sica's  stumbling  explanation 

The  three  young  people  seemed  to  get  on  ex 
tremely  well  together.  Reuben  fired  up  with  enthu 
siasm  at  the  first  mention  of  the  plan,  and  showed 
so  plainly  the  sincerity  of  his  liking  for  it  that  Miss 
Minster  felt  herself,  too,  all  aglow  with  zeal.  Thus 
taken  up  by  friendly  hands,  the  project  grew  apace, 
and  took  on  form  and  shape  like  Aladdin's  pal 
ace. 

Tabitha  listened  with  a  swiftly  mounting  impa 
tience  of  her  speechless  condition,  and  a  great  sick 
ening  of  the  task  of  watching  the  cockade  of  the 
coachman  outside,  which  she  had  imposed  upon  her 
self,  as  the  talk  went  on.  She  heard  Reuben  say 


2o6  The  Lawton  Girl. 

that  he  would  gladly  raise  a  subscription  for  the 
work;  she  heard  Kate  ask  to  be  allowed  to  head  the 
list  with  whatever  sum  he  thought  best,  and  then 
to  close  the  list  with  whatever  additional  sum  was 
needed  to  make  good  the  total  amount  required ; 
she  heard  Jessica,  overcome  with  delight,  stammer 
out  thanks  for  this  unlooked-for  adoption  and  en 
dowment  of  her  poor  little  plan,  and  then  she  could 
stand  it  no  longer. 

"  Have  you  quite  settled  what  you  will  do  with 
my  house?"  she  asked,  still  keeping  her  face  toward 
the  door.  "  There  are  some  other  places  along  here 
belonging  to  me — that  is,  they  always  have  up  to 
now — but  of  course  if  you  have  plans  about  them, 
too,  just  tell  me,  and — " 

"Don't  be  absurd,  Tabitha,"  said  Miss  Minster, 
rising  from  her  chair  as  she  spoke.  "  Of  course  we 
took  your  assent  for  granted  from  the  start.  I  be 
lieve,  candidly,  that  you  are  more  enthusiastic  about 
it  this  moment  than  even  we  are." 

Reuben  thought  that  the  old  lady  dissembled  her 
enthusiasm  skilfully,  but  at  least  she  offered  no  dis 
sent.  A  few  words  more  were  exchanged,  the  lawyer 
promising  again  his  aid,  and  Miss  Minster  insisting 
that  she  herself  wanted  the  task  of  drawing  up,  in 
all  its  details,  the  working  plan  for  the  new  institu 
tion,  and,  on  second  thoughts,  would  prefer  to  pay 
for  it  all  herself. 

"  I  have  been  simply  famishing  for  something  to 
do  all  these  years,"  she  said,  in  smiling  confidence,  to 
Tracy,  "  and  here  it  is  at  last.  You  can't  guess  how 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  207 

happy  I  shall  be  in  mapping  out  the  whole  thing — 
rules  and  amusements  and  the  arrangements  of  the 
rooms  and  the  furnishing,  and — everything." 

Perhaps  Jessica's  face  expressed  too  plainly  the 
thought  that  this  bantling  of  hers,  which  had  been 
so  munificently  adopted,  bade  fair  to  be  taken  away 
from  her  altogether,  for  Miss  Minster  added:  "  Of 
course,  when  the  sketch  is  fairly  well  completed,  I 
will  show  it  to  you,  and  we  will  advise  together," 
and  Jessica  smiled  again. 

When  the  two  ladies  were  seated  again  in  the 
sleigh,  and  the  horses  had  pranced  their  way  through 
the  wet  snow  up  to  the  beaten  track  once  more,  Miss 
Tabitha  said  : 

"  I  never  knew  a  girl  to  run  on  so  in  all  my  born 
days.  Here  you  are,  seeing  these  two  people  for 
the  very  first  time  half  an  hour  ago,  and  you've  tied 
yourself  up  to  goodness  only  knows  what.  One 
would  think  you'd  known  them  all  your  life,  the  way 
you  said  ditto  to  every  random  thing  that  popped 
into  their  heads.  And  a  pretty  penny  they'll  make 
it  cost  you,  too  !  And  what  will  your  mother  say  ?  " 

Miss  Minster  smiled  good-naturedly,  and  patted 
her  companion's  gloved  hand  with  her  own.  "  Never 
you  worry,  Tabitha,"  she  said,  softly.  "  Don't  talk, 
please,  for  a  minute.  I  want  to  think." 

It  was  a  very  long  minute.  The  young  heiress 
spent  it  in  gazing  abstractedly  at  the  buttons  on  the 
coachman's  back,  and  the  rapt  expression  on  her 
face  seemed  to  tell  more  of  a  pleasant  day-dream 
than  of  serious  mental  travail.  Miss  Wilcox  was 


208  The  Lawton  Girl. 

accustomed  to  these  moods  which  called  for  silence, 
and  offered  no  protest. 

At  last  Kate  spoke,  with  a  tone  of  affectionate 
command.  "  When  we  get  to  the  house  I  will  give 
you  a  book  to  read,  and  I  want  you  to  finish  every 
word  of  it  before  you  begin  anything  else.  It  is 
called  '  All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men,'  and  it  tells 
how  a  lovely  girl  with  whole  millions  of  pounds  did 
good  in  England,  and  I  was  thinking  of  it  all  the 
while  we  sat  there  in  the  shop.  Only  the  mortifica 
tion  of  it  is,  that  in  the  book  the  rich  girl  originated 
the  idea  herself,  whereas  I  had  to  have  it  hammered 
into  my  head  by — by  others.  But  you  must  read 
the  book,  and  hurry  with  it,  because — or  no  :  I  will  get 
another  copy  to  read  again  myself.  And  I  will  buy 
other  copies  ;  one  for  ^r  and  one  tor  him,  and  one — " 

She  lapsed  suddenly  into  silence  again.  The  dis 
parity  between  the  stupendous  dream  out  of  which 
the  People's  Palace  for  East  London's  mighty  hive 
of  millions  has  been  evolved,  and  the  humble  project 
of  a  sitting-room  or  two  for  the  factory-girls  of  a 
village,  rose  before  her  vision,  and  had  the  effect  of 
making  her  momentarily  ridiculous  in  her  own  eyes. 
The  familiarity,  too,  with  which  she  had  labelled  these 
two  strangers,  this  lawyer  and  this  milliner,  in  her 
own  thoughts,  as  "  him  "  and  "  her,"  jarred  just  a 
little  upon  her  maidenly  consciousness.  Perhaps 
she  had  rushed  to  embrace  their  scheme  with  too 
much  avidity.  It  was  generally  her  fault  to  be  over- 
impetuous.  Had  she  been  so  in  this  case? 

"  Of  course,  what   we  can  do   here  " — she  began 


A   Gracious  Friend  Raised  Up.  209 

with  less  eagerness  of  tone,  thinking  aloud  rather 
than  addressing  Tabitha — "  must  at  best  be  on  a  very 
small  scale.  You  must  not  be  frightened  by  the 
book,  where  everything  is  done  with  fairy  prodigality, 
and  the  lowest  figures  dealt  with  are  hundreds  of 
thousands.  I  only  want  you  to  read  it  that  you 
may  catch  the  spirit  of  it,  and  so  understand  how  I 
feel.  And  you  needn't  worry  about  my  wasting 
money,  or  doing  anything  foolish,  you  dear,  timid 
old  soul !  " 

Miss  Wilcox,  in  her  revolving  mental  processes, 
had  somehow  veered  around  to  an  attitude  of  mod 
erate  sympathy  with  the  project,  the  while  she  list 
ened  to  these  words.  "  I'm  sure  you  won't,  my 
dear,"  she  replied,  quite  sweetly.  "  And  I  daresay 
there  can  really  be  a  great  deal  of  good  done,  only, 
of  course,  it  will  have  to  be  gone  at  cautiously  and 
by  degrees.  And  we  must  let  old  Runkle  do  the 
papering  and  whitewashing  ;  don't  forget  that. 
He's  had  ever  so  much  sickness  in  his  family  all  the 
winter,  and  work  is  so  slack." 

"  Do  you  know,  I  like  your  Mr.  Tracy !  "  was 
Kate's  irrelevant  reply.  She  made  it  musingly,  as  if 
the  idea  were  new  to  her  mind. 

''You  can  see  for  yourself  there  couldn't  have 
been  anything  at  all  in  that  spiteful  Sarah  Cheese- 
borough's  talk  about  him  and  her,"  said  Tabitha, 
who  now  felt  herself  to  have  been  all  along  the 
champion  of  this  injured  couple.  "  How  on  earth  a 
respectable  woman  can  invent  such  slanders  beats 
my  comprehension." 
14 


210  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Kate  Minster  laughed  merrily  aloud.  "  It's  lucky 
you  weren't  made  of  pancake  batter,  Tabitha,"  she 
said  with  mock  gravity  ;  "  for,  if  you  had  been,  you 
never  could  have  stood  this  being  stirred  both  ways. 
You  would  have  turned  heavy  and  been  spoiled." 

"  Instead  of  which  I  live  to  spoil  other  people, 
eh  ?  "  purred  the  gratified  old  lady,  shaking  her  curls 
with  affectionate  pride. 

"  If  we  weren't  out  in  the  street,  I  believe  I  should 
kiss  you,  Tabitha,"  said  the  girl.  "  You  can't  begin 
to  imagine  how  delightfully  you  have  behaved  to 
day  !  " 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

TRACY    HEARS    STRANGE   THINGS. 

REUBEN'S  first  impulse,  when  he  found  himself 
alone  in  the  little  shop  with  his  former  pupil,  was  to 
say  good-by  and  get  out  as  soon  as  he  could.  To 
the  best  of  his  recollection,  he  had  never  before  been 
in  a  store  consecrated  entirely  to  the  fashions  and 
finery  of  the  opposite  sex,  and  he  was  oppressed  by 
a  sense  of  being  an  intruder  upon  an  exclusively 
feminine  domain.  The  young  girl,  too,  whom  he 
had  been  thinking  of  all  this  while  as  an  unfortunate 
child  whom  he  must  watch  over  and  be  good  to, 
stood  revealed  before  him  as  a  self-controlled  and 
sophisticated  woman,  only  a  few  years  younger  than 
himself  in  actual  age,  and  much  wiser  than  himself 
in  the  matters  of  head-gear  and  textures  and  colors 
which  belonged  to  this  place.  He  could  have  talked 
freely  to  her  in  his  law-office,  with  his  familiar  acces 
sories  of  papers  and  books  about  him.  A  back 
ground  of  bonnets  was  disconcerting. 

u  How  beautiful  she  is  !  "  were  Jessica's  first  words, 
and  they  pleasurably  startled  the  lawyer  from  his 
embarrassed  revery. 

"  She  is,  indeed,"  he  answered,  and  somehow 
found  himself  hoping  that  the  conversation  would 


212  The  Lawton  Girl. 

cling  to  this  subject  a  good  while.  "  I  had  never 
met  her  before,  as  you  saw,  but  of  course  I  have 
known  her  by  sight  a  long  time." 

"  I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  her  before  to-day,"  said 
Jessica.  "  How  wonderful  it  seems  that  she  should 
have  come,  and  then  that  you  came,  too,  and  that 
you  both  should  like  the  plan,  and  take  it  up  so,  and 
make  a  success  of  it  right  at  the  start." 

Reuben  smiled.  "  In  your  eagerness  to  keep  up 
with  the  procession  I  fear  you  are  getting  ahead  of 
the  band,"  he  said.  "  I  wouldn't  quite  call  it  a  suc 
cess,  at  present.  But,  no  doubt,  it's  a  great  thing  to 
have  her  enlisted  in  it.  I'm  glad  she  likes  you  ; 
her  friendship  will  make  all  the  difference  in  the 
world  to  you,  here  in  Thessaly." 

The  girl  did  not  immediately  answer,  and  Tracy, 
looking  at  her  as  she  walked  across  to  the  showcase, 
was  surprised  to  catch  the  glisten  of  tears  on  her 
eyelashes.  He  had  no  idea  what  to  say,  but  waited 
in  pained  puzzlement  for  her  to  speak. 

"  '  Friendship  '  is  not  quite  the  word,"  she  said  at 
last,  looking  up  at  him  and  smiling  with  mournful 
softness  through  her  tears.  "  I  shall  be  glad  if  she 
likes  me — as  you  say,  it  will  be  a  great  thing  if  she 
helps  me — but  we  shall  hardly  be  '  friends,'  you 
know.  She  would  never  call  it  that.  Oh,  no  !  oh, 


no 


Her  voice  trembled  audibly  over  these  last  words, 
and  she  began  hurriedly  to  re-arrange  some  of  the 
articles  in  the  showcase,  with  the  obvious  design  of 
masking  her  emotion. 


Tracy  Hears  Strange   Things.  213 

"  You  can  do  yourself  no  greater  harm  than  by 
exaggerating  that  kind  of  notion,  my  girl,"  said 
Reuben  Tracy,  in  his  old  gravely  kind  voice.  "  You 
would  put  thoughts  into  her  head  that  way  which 
she  had  never  dreamt  of  otherwise  ;  that  is,  if  she 
weren't  a  good  and  sensible  person.  Why,  she  is  a 
woman  like  yourself — " 

"  Oh,  no,  no  !     Not  like  me  /  " 

Tracy  was  infinitely  touched  by  the  pathos  of  this 
deprecating  wail,  but  he  went  on  as  if  he  had  not 
heard  it:  "A  woman  like  yourself,  with  a  heart 
turned  in  mercy  and  charity  toward  other  women 
who  are  not  so  strong  to  help  themselves.  Why  on 
earth  should  you  vex  your  soul  with  fears  that  she 
will  be  unkind  to  you,  when  she  showed  you  as 
plain  as  the  noonday  sun  her  desire  to  be  kind? 
You  mustn't  yield  to  such  fancies." 

"  Kind,  yes  !  But  you  don't  understand — you 
can't  understand.  I  shouldn't  have  spoken  as  I  did. 
It  was  a  mere  question  of  a  word,  anyway." 

Jessica  smiled  again,  to  show  that,  though  the 
tears  were  still  there,  the  grief  behind  them  was  to 
be  regarded  as  gone,  and  added,  "  Yes,  she  was 
kindness  itself." 

"  She  is  very  rich  in  her  own  right,  I  believe,  and 
if  her  interest  in  your  project  is  genuine — that  is,  of 
the  kind  that  lasts — you  will  hardly  need  any  other 
assistance.  Of  course  you  must  allow  for  the  chance 
of  her  dropping  the  idea  as  suddenly  as  she  picked 
it  up.  Rich  women — rich  people  generally,  for  that 
matter — are  often  flighty  about  such  things.  '  Put 


214  The  Lawton  GirL 

not  your  trust  in  princes/  serves  as  a, warning  about 
millionnaires  as  well  as  monarchs.  LThe  rest  of  us  are 
forced  to  be  more  or  less  continuous  in  what  we 
think  and  do.  We  have  to  keep  at  the  things  we've 
started,  because  a  waste  of  time  would  be  serious  to 
us.  We  have  to  keep  the  friends  and  associates 
we've  got,  because  others  are  not  to  be  had  for  the 
asking.  But  these  favored  people  are  more  free — 
their  time  doesn't  matter,  and  they  can  find  new 
sets  of  friends  ready  made  whenever  they  weary  of 
the  others.  Still,  let  us  hope  she  will  be  steadfast. 
She  has  a  strong  face,  at  all  events." 

The  girl  had  listened  to  this  substantial  disser 
tation  with  more  or  less  comprehension,  but  with 
unbounded  respect.  Anything  that  Reuben  Tracy 
said  she  felt  must  be  good.  Besides,  his  conclusion 
jumped  with  her  hopes. 

"  I'm  not  afraid  of  her  losing  interest  in  the  thing 
itself,"  she  answered.  "  What  worries  me  is — or, 
no—  She  stopped  herself  with  a  smile,  and  made 
haste  to  add,  "  I  forgot.  I  mustn't  be  worried.  But 
who  is  our  Miss  Minster?  Does  she  own  the  iron 
works?  Tell  me  about  her." 

"  She  owns  a  share  of  the  works,  I  think.  I  don't 
know  how  big  a  share,  or,  in  fact,  much  else  about 
her.  I've  heard  my  partner,  Horace  Boyce,  talk 
lately  a  good  deal — •" 

Tracy  did  not  finish  his  sentence,  for  Jessica  had 
sunk  suddenly  into  the  chair  behind  the  case,  and 
was  staring  at  him  over  the  glass-bound  row  of  bon 
nets  with  wide-open,  startled  eyes. 


Tracy  Hears  Strange   Things.  215 

"  Your  partner!  Yours,  did  you  say?  That 
man  ?  " 

Her  tone  and  manner  very  much  surprised  Reu 
ben.  "  Why,  yes,  he's  my  partner,"  he  said,  slowly 
and  in  wonderment.  "  Didn't  you  know  that? 
We've  been  together  since  December." 

She  shook  her  head,  and  murmured  something 
hastily  about  having  been  very  busy,  and  being 
cooped  up  on  a  back  street. 

This  did  not  explain  her  agitation,  which  more 
and  more  puzzled  Reuben  as  he  thought  upon- it. 
He  stood  looking  down  upon  her  where  she  sat,  and 
noted  that  her  face,  though  it  was  turned  away  from 
him  now,  was  both  pale  and  excited. 

"  Do  you  know  him  ?  "  he  asked  finally. 

She  shook  her  head  again,  and  the  lawyer  fancied 
she  was  biting  her  lips.  He  did  not  know  well  what 
else  to  say,  and  was  speculating  whether  it  would 
not  be  best  to  say  nothing,  when  all  at  once  she 
burst  forth  vehemently. 

"  I  wont  lie  to  you  !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  I  did 
know  him,  very  much  to  my  cost.  And,  oh !  don't 
you  trust  him  !  Don't  you  trust  him,  I  say!  He's 
not  fit  to  be  with  you.  Oh,  my  God  ! — dorit  I  know 
Horace  Boyce !  " 

Reuben  stood  silent,  still  looking  down  gravely 
into  the  girl's  flashing  eyes.  What  she  had  said 
annoyed  and  disturbed  him,  but  what  he  thought 
chiefly  about  was  how  to  avoid  bringing  on  an  ex 
planation  which  must  wound  and  humiliate  her 
feelings.  It  was  clear  enough  what  she  meant,  and 


2i6  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

he  compassionately  hoped  she  would  not  feel  it 
necessary  to  add  anything.  Above  all  things  he 
felt  that  he  wanted  to  spare  her  pain. 

"  I  understand,"  he  said  at  last,  as  the  frankest 
way  out  of  the  dilemma.  "  Don't  say  any  more." 

He  pondered  for  a  minute  or  so  upon  the  pro 
priety  of  not  saying  anything  more  himself,  and 
then  with  decision  offered  her  his  hand  across  the 
showcase,  and  held  hers  in  his  expansive  clasp  with 
what  he  took  to  be  fatherly  sympathy,  as  he 
said  : 

"  I  must  go  now.  Good-by.  And  I  shall  hear 
from  you  soon  about  the  project  ?  "  He  smiled  to 
reassure  her,  and  added,  still  holding  her  hand, 
"  Now,  don't  you  let  worry  come  inside  these  doors 
at  all.  You  have  made  a  famous  start,  and  every 
thing  will  go  well,  believe  me." 

Then  he  went  out,  and  the  shrill  clamor  of  the  bell 
hung  to  jangle  when  the  door  was  opened  woke  Jes 
sica  from  her  day-dream,  just  as  the  sunbeams  had 
begun  to  drive  away  the  night. 

She  rose  with  a  start,  and  walked  to  the  door  to 
follow  his  retiring  figure  through  the  glass.  She 
stood  there,  lost  in  another  revery — vague,  languor 
ous,  half-bright,  half-hideous — until  the  door  from 
the  back  room  was  opened,  and  Samantha's  sharp 
voice  fell  on  the  silence  of  the  little  shop. 

"  I  ain't  going  to  set  in  that  poky  old  kitchen  any 
longer  for  all  the  bonnets  in  your  whole  place,"  she 
remarked,  with  determination,  advancing  to  the  mir 
ror  with  the  toque  on  her  truculently  poised  head. 


Tracy  Hears  Strange  Things.  217 

"  Besides,  you  said  you'd  call  us  when  they  were  all 
gone." 

Lucinda  stole  up  to  her  sister-employer,  and  mur 
mured  in  a  side-long  whisper :  "  I  couldn't  keep  her 
from  listening  a  little.  You  talked  too  loud.  She 
heard  what  you  said  about  that  Boyce  chap." 

The  tidings  angered  Jessica  even  more  than  they 
alarmed  her.  With  an  impulse  equally  illogical  and 
natural,  she  frowned  at  Samantha,  and  stiffened  her 
fingers  claw-wise,  with  a  distinct  itching  to  tear  that 
arrangement  of  bronze  velvet  and  sage-green  feath 
ers  from  her  perfidious  sister's  head. 

Curiously  enough,  it  was  the  usually  aggressive 
Lucinda  who  counselled  prudence.  "  If  I  was  you, 
I'd  ask  her  to  stay  to  dinner,"  she  said,  in  the  same 
furtive  undertone.  "  I've  been  talking  to  her,  and  I 
guess  she'll  be  all  right  if  we  make  it  kind  o'  pleasant 
for  her  when  she  comes.  But  if  you  rub  her  the 
wrong  way,  she'll  scratch." 

Samantha  was  asked  to  dinner,  and  stayed,  and 
later,  being  offered  her  choice  of  three  hat-pins  with 
heads  of  ornamented  jet,  took  two. 

Reuben  walked  slowly  back  to  the  office,  and  then 
sat  through  a  solitary  meal  at  a  side-table  in  the 
Dearborn  House  dining-room,  although  his  custom 
ary  seat  was  at  the  long  table  down  the  centre,  in 
order  that  he  might  think  over  what  he  had  heard. 

It  is  not  clear  that  the  isolated  fact  disclosed  to 
him  in  the  milliner's  shop  would,  in  itself,  have  been 
sufficient  to  awaken  in  his  mind  any  serious  distrust 


218  The  Lawton  Girl. 

of  his  partner.  As  the  sexes  have  different  trainings 
and  different  spheres,  so  they  have  different  stand 
ards.  Men  set  up  the  bars,  for  instance,  against  a 
brother  who  cheats  at  cards,  or  divulges  what  he  has 
heard  in  his  club,  or  borrows  money  which  he  can 
not  repay,  or  pockets  cigars  at  feasts  when  he  does 
not  himself  smoke.  But  their  courts  of  ethics  do 
not  exercise  jurisdiction  over  sentimental  or  sexual 
offences,  as  a  rule.  These  the  male  instinct  vaguely 
refers  to  some  other  tribunal,  which  may  or  may  not 
be  in  session  somewhere  else.  And  this  male  instinct 
is  not  necessarily  co-existent  with  immoral  tenden 
cies,  or  blunted  sensibilities,  or  even  indifference:  it 
is  the  man's  way  of  looking  at  it — just  as  it  is  his 
way  to  cross  a  muddy  street  on  his  toes,  while  his 
sisters  perform  the  same  feat  on  their  heels. 

Reuben  Tracy  was  a  good  man,  and  one  with  keen 
aspirations  toward  honorable  and  ennobling  things ; 
but  still  he  was  a  man,  and  it  may  be  that  this  dis 
covery,  standing  by  itself,  would  not  seriously  have 
affected  his  opinion  of  Horace.  But  it  did  not  stand 
by  itself. 

In  an  indefinite  kind  of  way,  he  was  conscious  of 
being  less  attracted  by  the  wit  and  sparkling  small- 
talk  of  Horace  than  he  had  been  at  first.  Somehow, 
the  young  man  seemed  to  have  exhausted  his  store  ; 
he  began  to  repeat  himself,  as  if  he  had  already 
made  the  circuit  of  the  small  ring  around  which  his 
mind  travelled.  Reuben  confronted  a  suspicion  that 
the  Boyce  soil  was  shallow. 

This  might   not   be   necessarily  an  evil  thing,  he 


Tracy  Hears  Strange   Things.  219 

said  to  himself.  Lawyers  quite  often  achieved  no 
table  successes  before  juries,  who  were  not  deep  or 
well-grounded  men.  Horace  was  versatile,  and  ver 
satility  was  a  quality  which  Reuben  distinctly  lacked. 
From  that  point  of  view  the  combination  ought, 
therefore,  to  be  of  value. 

But,  then,  Horace  told  lies.  Versatility  of  that 
variety  was  not  so  admirable.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  on  this  point.  Reuben  could  count  on  his 
fingers  now  six  separate  falsehoods  that  his  partner 
had  already  told  him.  They  happened  not  to  be 
upon  vital  or  even  important  subjects,  but  that  did 
not  render  them  the  more  palatable. 

And  then  there  was  the  Minster  business.  He 
knew  from  other  sources  that  Horace  had  been 
intrusted  with  the  papers  left  to  Mr.  Clarke's  exec 
utors.  The  young  man  had  taken  them  to  his 
father's  house,  and  had  never  mentioned  so  much  as 
a  syllable  about  them  to  his  partner.  No  doubt, 
Horace  felt  that  he  ought  to  have  this  as  his  personal 
business,  and  upon  the  precedent  Reuben  himself 
had  set  with  the  railroad  work,  this  was  fair  enough. 
But  there  was  something  underhanded  in  his  secrecy 
about  the  matter.  He  should  have  spoken  of  it. 

Reuben's  thoughts  from  this  drifted  to  the  Min. 
sters  themselves,  and  centred  reverently  upon  the 
luminous  figure  of  that  elder  daughter  whom  he  had 
met  an  hour  before.  He  did  not  dwell  much  upon 
her  beauty — perhaps  he  was  a  trifle  dull  about  such 
things — but  her  graciousness,  her  sweet  interest  in 
the  charity,  her  womanly  commingling  of  softness 


22O  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

and  enthusiasm,  seemed  to  shine  about  him  as  he 
mused.  Thessaly  unconsciously  assumed  a  brighter 
and  more  wholesome  aspect,  with  much  less  need  of 
reform  than  before,  in  his  mind's  eye,  now  that  he 
thought  of  it  as  her  home. 

Her  home !  The  prosperous  and  respected  law 
yer  was  still  a  country  boy  in  his  unformed  specula 
tions  as  to  what  that  home  might  be  like.  The 
Minster  house  was  the  most  splendid  mansion  in 
Dearborn  County,  it  was  said,  but  his  experience 
with  mansions  was  small.  A  hundred  times  it  had 
been  said  to  him  that  he  could  go  anywhere  if  he 
liked,  and  he  gave  the  statement  credence  enough. 
But  somehow  it  happened  that  he  had  not  gone. 
To  "  be  in  society,"  as  the  phrase  went,  had  not 
seemed  important  to  him.  Now,  almost  for  the  first 
time,  he  found  himself  regretting  this.  Then  he 
smiled  somewhat  scowlingly  at  his  plate  as  the  va 
grant  reflection  came  up  that  his  partner  contributed 
social  status  as  well  as  versatility  and  mendacity  to 
the  outfit  of  the  firm.  Horace  Boycehad  a  swallow 
tail  coat,  and  visited  at  the  Minsters'.  The  reflec 
tion  was  not  altogether  grateful  to  him. 

Reuben  rose  from  the  table,  and  stood  for  a  few 
moments  by  the  window  overlooking  the  veranda 
and  the  side  street.  The  sunny  warmth  of  the  thaw 
ing  noon-day  had  made  it  possible  to  have  the  win 
dow  open,  and  the  sound  of  voices  close  at  hand 
showed  that  there  were  people  already  anticipating 
pneumonia  and  the  springtime  by  sitting  on  the 
porch  outside. 


Tracy  Hears  Strange  Things.  221 

These  voices  conveyed  no  distinct  impression  at 
first  to  Reuben's  mind,  busy  as  he  was  with  his  own 
reflections.  But  all  at  once  there  was  a  scraping  of 
feet  and  chair-legs  on  the  floor,  signifying  that  the 
party  had  risen,  and  then  he  heard  two  remarks 
which  made  a  sharp  appeal  to  his  attention  and 
interest. 

The  first  voice  said  :  "  Mind,  I'm  not  going  to  let 
you  put  me  into  a  hole.  What  I  do,  I  do  only  when 
it  has  been  proved  to  me  to  be  to  my  own  interest, 
and  not  at  all  because  I'm  afraid  of  you.  Under 
stand  that  clearly !  " 

The  other  voice  replied  :  "  All  that  you  need  be 
afraid  of  is  that  you  will  kick  over  your  own  bucket 
of  milk.  You've  got  the  whole  game  in  your  hands, 
if  you  only  listen  to  me  and  don't  play  it  like  a  fool. 
What  do  you  say  ?  Shall  we  go  up  to  your  house 
and  put  the  thing  into  shape?  We  can  be  alone 
there." 

The  voices  ceased,  and  there  was  a  sound  of  foot 
steps  descending  from  the  porch  to  the  sidewalk. 
The  two  men  passed  before  the  window,  ducking 
their  heads  for  protection  against  the  water  drip 
ping  from  the  overflowed  eaves  on  the  roof  of  the 
veranda,  and  thus  missing  sight  of  the  man  who  had 
overheard  them. 

Reuben  had  known  at  once  by  the  sound  of  the 
voice  that  the  first  speaker  was  Horace  Boyce.  He 
recognized  his  companion  now  as  Schuyler  Tenney, 
and  the  sight  startled  him. 

Just  why  it  should   have   done  so,  he  could  not 


222  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

have  explained.  He  had  seen  this  Schuyler  Tenney 
almost  every  day  for  a  good  many  years,  putting 
them  all  together,  and  had  never  before  been 
troubled,  much  less  alarmed,  by  the  spectacle.  But 
coming  now  upon  what  Jessica  had  told  him,  and 
what  his  own  thoughts  had  evolved,  and  what  he 
had  inadvertently  overheard,  the  figure  of  the  rising 
hardware  merchant  loomed  darkly  in  his  perturbed 
fancy  as  an  evil  and  threatening  thing. 

A  rustic  client  with  a  grievance  sought  Tracy  out 
in  the  seclusion  of  the  dining-room,  and  dragged 
him  back  to  his  office  and  into  the  intricacies  of  the 
law  of  trespass  ;  but  though  he  did  his  best  to  listen 
and  understand,  the  farmer  went  away  feeling  that 
his  lawyer  was  a  considerably  overrated  man. 

For,  strive  as  he  might,  Reuben  could  not  get  the 
sound  of  those  words,  "  you've  got  the  whole  game 
in  your  hands,"  out  of  his  ears,  or  restrain  his  mind 
from  wearying  itself  with  the  anxious  puzzle  of 
guessing  what  that  game  could  be. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

A   SIMPLE   BUSINESS   TRANSACTION. 

MR.  SCHUYLER  TENNEY  had  never  before  been 
afforded  an  opportunity  of  studying  a  young  gen 
tleman  of  fashion  and  culture  in  the  intimacy  of  his 
private  apartments,  and  he  looked  about  Horace's 
room  with  lively  curiosity  and  interest,  when  the 
two  conspirators  had  entered  the  General's  house, 
gone  up-stairs,  and  shut  doors  behind  them. 

"  It  looks  like  a  ninety-nine-cent  store,  for  all  the 
world,"  was  his  comment  when  he  had  examined  the 
bric-a-brac  on  the  walls  and  mantels,  "  hefted "  a 
bronze  trifle  or  two  on  the  table,  and  taken  a  com 
prehensive  survey  of  the  furniture  and  hangings. 

"  It's  rather  bare  than  otherwise,"  said  Horace, 
carelessly.  "  I  got  a  tolerably  decent  lot  of  traps 
together  when  I  had  rooms  in  Jermyn  Street,  but  I 
had  to  let  most  of  them  go  when  I  pulled  up  stakes 
to  come  home." 

"  German  Street  ?    I  suppose  that  is  in  Germany?" 

"  No— London." 

"Oh  !     Sold  'em  because  you  got  hard  up?" 

"  Not  at  all.  But  this  damned  tariff  of  yours — or 
ours — makes  it  cost  too  much  to  bring  decent  things 
over  here." 


224  The  Latvian   Girl. 

"  Protection  to  American  industry,  my  boy,"  said 
Mr.  Tenney,  affably.  "  We  couldn't  get  on  a  fort 
night  without  it.  Just  think  what — 

"Oh,  hang  it  all,  man!  We  didn't  come  here  to 
talk  tariff !  "  Horace  broke  in,  with  a  smile  which 
was  half  annoyance. 

"  No,  that's  so,"  assented  Mr.  Tenney,  settling 
himself  in  the  low,  deep-backed  easy-chair,  and  put 
ting  the  tips  of  his  lean  fingers  together.  "  No,  we 
didn't,  for  a  fact."  He  added,  after  a  moment's 
pause:  "  I  guess  I'll  have  to  rig  up  a  room  like  this 
myself,  when  the  thing  comes  off."  He  smiled  icily 
to  himself  at  the  thought. 

"Meanwhile,  let  us  talk  about  the  'thing,'  as  you 
call  it.  Will  you  have  a  drink?" 

"  Never  touch  it,"  said  Mr.  Tenney,  and  he  looked 
curiously  on  while  Horace  poured  out  some  brandy, 
and  then  opened  a  bottle  of  soda-water  to  go  with 
it.  He  was  particularly  impressed  by  the  little  wire 
frame-work  stand  made  to  hold  the  round-bottomed 
bottle,  and  asked  its  cost,  and  wondered  if  they 
wouldn't  be  a  good  thing  to  keep  in  the  store. 

"  Now  to  business ! "  said  Horace,  dragging  out 
from  under  a  sofa  the  black  tin  box  which  held  the 
Minster  papers,  and  throwing  back  its  cover.  "  I've 
told  you  pretty  well  what  there  is  in  here." 

Mr.  Tenney  took  from  his  pocket-book  the  tabular 
statement  Horace  had  made  of  the  Minster  property, 
and  smoothed  it  out  over  his  pointed  knee. 

"It's  a  very  pretty  table,"  he  said;  "no  book 
keeper  could  have  done  it  better.  I  know  it  by 


A  Simple  Business  Transaction.  225 

heart,  but  we'll  keep  it  here  in  sight  while  you  pro 
ceed." 

"There's  nothing  for  me  to  proceed  with,"  said 
Horace,  lolling  back  in  his  chair  in  turn.  "  I  want 
to  hear  you!  Don't  let  us  waste  time.  Broadly, 
what  do  you  propose?" 

"  Broadly,  what  does  everybody  propose  ?  To 
get  for  himself  what  somebody  else  has  got.  That's 
human  nature.  It's  every  kind  of  nature,  down  to 
the  little  chickens  just  hatched  who  start  to  chase 
the  chap  with  the  worm  in  his  mouth  before  they've 
fairly  got  their  tails  out  of  the  shell." 

"  You  ought  to  write  a  book,  Schuyler,"  said 
Horace,  using  this  familiar  name  for  the  first  time  : 
"'Tenney  on  Dynamic  Sociology'!  But  I  inter 
rupted  your  application.  What  particular  worm 
have  you  got  in  your  bill's  eye?" 

"  We  are  all  worms,  so  the  Bible  says.  I  suppose 
even  those  scrumptious  ladies  there  come  under 
that  head,  like  we  ordinary  mortals."  Mr.  Tenney 
pointed  his  agreeable  metaphor  by  touching  the 
paper  on  his  knee  with  his  joined  finger-tips,  and 
showed  his  small,  sharpened  teeth  in  a  momentary 
smile. 

"  I  follow  you,"  said  Horace,  tentatively.  "  Go  on!  " 

"That's  a  heap  of  money  that  you've  ciphered  out 
there,  on  that  paper." 

"  Yes.  True,  it  isn't  ours,  and  we've  got  nothing 
to  do  with  it.  But  that's  a  detail.  Go  on !  " 

"  A  good  deal  of  it  can  be  ours,  if  you've  got  the 
pluck  to  go  in  with  me." 
15 


226  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Horace  frowned.  "  Upon  my  word,  Tenney,"  he 
said,  impatiently,  "what  do  you  mean?" 

"Jest  what  I  said,"  was  the  sententious  and  col 
lected  response. 

The  younger  man  laughed  with  an  uneasy  assump 
tion  of  scorn.  "  Is  it  a  burglary  you  do  me  the 
honor  to  propose,  or  only  common  or  garden  rob 
bery?  Ought  we  to  manage  a  little  murder  in  the 
thing,  or  what  do  you  say  to  arson  ?  Upon  my  word, 
man,  I  believe  that  you  don't  realize  that  what  you've 
said  is  an  insult !  " 

"  No,  I  don't.  You're  right  there,"  said  the  hard 
ware  merchant,  in  no  wise  ruffled.  "  But  I  do  realize 
that  you  come  pretty  near  being  the  dod-blamedest 
fool  in  Dearborn  County." 

"  Much  obliged  for  the  qualification,  I'm  sure," 
retorted  Horace,  who  felt  the  mists  of  his  half-simu 
lated,  half-instinctive  anger  fading  away  before  the 
steady  breath  of  the  other  man's  purpose.  "  But  I 
interrupt  you.  Pray  go  on." 

"  There  ain't  no  question  of  dishonesty  about  the 
thing,  not  the  slightest.  I  ain't  that  kind  of  a  man  !  " 

Horace  permitted  himself  a  shadowy  smile,  em 
phasized  by  a  subdued  little  sniff,  which  Tenney 
caught  and  was  pleased  to  appear  to  resent. 

"  Thessaly  knows  me  !  "  he  said,  with  an  air  of 
pride.  "  They  ain't  a  living  man — nor  a  dead  one 
nuther — can  put  his  finger  on  me.  I've  lived  above- 
board,  sir,  and  owe  no  man  a  red  cent,  and  I  defy 
anybody  to  so  much  as  whisper  a  word  about  my 
character." 


A  Simple  Business  Transaction.  227 

"  '  Tenney  on  Faith  Justified  by  Works,'  "  com 
mented  Horace,  softly,  smiling  as  much  as  he  dared, 
but  in  a  less  aggressive  manner. 

"  Works — yes  !  "  said  the  hardware  merchant,  *  the 
Minster  iron-works,  in  particular."  He  seemed 
pleased  with  his  little  joke,  and  paused  to  dwell 
upon  it  in  his  mind  for  an  instant.  Then  he 
went  on,  sitting  upright  in  his  chair  now,  and  dis 
playing  a  new  earnestness : 

"  Dishonesty  is  wrong,  and  it  is  foolish.  It  gets  a 
man  disgraced,  and  it  gets  him  in  jail.  But  commer 
cial  acumen  is  another  thing.  A  smart  man  can  get 
money  in  a  good  many  ways  without  giving  anybody 
a  chance  to  call  him  dishonest.  I  have  thought  out 
several  plans — some  of  them  strong  at  one  point, 
others  at  another,  but  all  pretty  middlin'  good — 
how  to  feather  our  own  nests  out  of  this  thing." 

"  Well  ?  "  said  Horace,  interrogatively. 

Mr.  Tenney  did  not  smile  any  more,  and  he  had 
done  with  digressions.  "  First  of  all,"  he  said,  with 
his  intent  gray  eyes  fixed  on  the  young  man's  face, 
"  what  guarantee  have  I  that  you  won't  give  me 
away  ?  " 

"What  guarantee  can  I  give  you?"  replied  Hor 
ace,  also  sitting  up. 

"  Perhaps  you  are  right,"  said  Tenney,  thinking 
in  his  own  swift-working  mind  that  it  would  be  easy 
enough  to  take  care  of  this  poor  creature  later  on. 
"  Well,  then,  you've  been  appointed  Mrs.  Minster's 
lawyer  in  the  interest  of  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing 
Company — this  company  here  marked  '  D,'  in  which 


228  The  Lawton  Girl. 

the  family  has  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars." 

"  I  gathered  as  much.  Perhaps  you  wouldn't  mind 
telling  me  what  it  is  all  about." 

"  I'm  as  transparent  as  plate-glass  when  I  think  a 
man  is  acting  square  with  me,"  said  the  hardware 
merchant.  "  This  is  how  it  is.  Wendover  and  me 
got  hold  of  a  little  rolling-mill  and  nail-works  at 
Cadmus,  down  on  the  Southern  Tier,  a  few  years 
ago.  Some  silly  people  had  put  up  the  money  for 
it,  and  there  was  a  sort  of  half-crazy  inventor  fellow 
running  it.  They  were  making  ducks  and  drakes  of 
the  whole  thing,  and  I  saw  a  chance  of  getting  into 
the  concern — I  used  to  buy  a  good  deal  of  hardware 
from  them,  and  knew  how  they  stood — and  I  spoke 
to  Wendover,  and  so  we  went  in." 

"That  means  that  the  other  people  were  put  out, 
I  suppose,"  commented  Horace. 

"  Well,  no  ;  but  they  kind  o'  faded  away  like.  I 
wouldn't  exactly  say  they  were  put  out,  but  after  a 
while  they  didn't  seem  to  be  able  to  stay  in.  But 
never  mind  them.  Well,  Cadmus  was  a  bad  location. 
The  iron  fields  around  there  had  pretty  well  petered 
out,  and  we  were  way  off  the  main  line  of  transpor 
tation.  Business  was  fair  enough  ;  we  made  a  straight 
ten  per  cent,  year  in  and  year  out,  because  the  thing 
was  managed  carefully  ;  but  that  was  in  spite  of  a 
lot  of  drawbacks.  So  I  got  a  scheme  in  my  head  to 
move  the  whole  concern  up  here  to  Thessaly,  and 
hitch  it  up  with  the  Minster  iron-works.  We  could 
save  one  dollar  a  ton,  or  forty-five  thousand  dollars 


A   Simple  Business   Transaction.  229 

in  all,  in  the  mere  matter  of  freight  alone,  if  we  could 
use  up  their  entire  output.  I  may  tell  you,  I  didn't 
appear  in  the  business  at  all.  I  daresay  Mrs.  Min 
ster  don't  know  to  this  day  that  I'm  a  kind  of  part 
ner  of  hers.  It  happened  that  Wendover  used  to 
know  her  when  she  was  a  girl — they  both  come  from 
down  the  Hudson  somewhere — and  so  he  worked 
the  thing  with  her,  and  we  moved  over  from  Cadmus, 
hook,  line,  bob,  and  sinker,  and  wre're  the  Thessaly 
Manufacturing  Company.  Do  you  see  ?  " 

"  So  far,  yes.  She  and  her  daughters  have  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  cash  in  it. 
What  is  the  rest  of  the  company  like?  " 

'"  It's  stocked  at  four  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
We  put  in  all  our  plant  and  machinery  and  business 
and  good-will  and  so  on  at  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  and  then  we  furnished  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  cash.  So  we  hold  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  shares  to  their  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five." 

"  Who  are  the  'we'?" 

"  Well,  Pete  Wendover  and  me  are  about  the  only 
people  you're  liable  to  meet  around  the  premises,  I 
guess.  There  are  some  other  names  on  the  books, 
but  they  don't  amount  to  much.  We  can  wipe 
them  off  whenever  we  like." 

"  I  notice  that  this  company  has  paid  no  dividends 
since  it  was  formed." 

"  That's  because  of  the  expense  of  building.  And 
we  ain't  got  what  you  may  call  fairly  to  work  yet. 
But  it's  all  right.  There  is  big  money  in  it." 


230  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

"  I  daresay,"  observed  Horace.  "  But,  if  you  will 
excuse  the  remark,  I  seem  to  have  missed  that  part 
of  your  statement  which  referred  to  my  making 
something  out  of  the  company." 

The  hardware  merchant  allowed  his  cold  eyes  to 
twinkle  for  an  instant.  "  You'll  be  taken  care  of," 
he  said,  confidentially.  "  Don't  fret  your  gizzard 
about  that  /  " 

Horace  smiled.  It  seemed  to  be  easier  to  get  on 
with  Tenney  than  he  had  thought.  "  But  what  am 
I  to  do;  that  is,  if  I  decide  to  do  anything  ?"  he 
asked.  "  I  confess  I  don't  see  your  scheme." 

"  Why,  that's  curious,"  said  the  other,  with  an  air 
of  candor.  "  And  you  lawyers  have  the  name  of 
being  so  'cute,  too  !  " 

"  I  don't  suppose  we  see  through  a  stone  wall 
much  farther  than  other  people.  Our  chief  advan 
tage  is  in  being  able  to  recognize  that  it  is  a  wall. 
And  this  one  of  yours  seems  to  be  as  thick  and 
opaque  as  most,  I'm  bound  to  say." 

"  We  don't  want  you  to  do  anything,  just  now," 
Mr.  Tenney  explained.  "  Things  may  turn  up  in 
which  you  can  be  of  assistance,  and  then  we  want 
to  count  on  you,  that's  all." 

This  was  a  far  less  lucid  explanation  than  Horace 
had  looked  for.  Tenney  had  been  so  anxious  for 
a  confidential  talk,  and  had  hinted  of  such  daz 
zling  secrets,  that  this  was  a  distinct  disappoint 
ment. 

"  What  did  you  mean  by  saying  that  I  had  the 
whole  game  in  my  hands?"  he  demanded,  not  dis- 


A  Simple  Business   Transaction.  231 

sembling  his  annoyance.  "  Thus  far,  you  haven't 
even  dealt  me  any  cards  !  " 

Mr.  Tenney  lay  back  in  his  chair  again,  and  sur 
veyed  Horace  over  his  finger-tips.  "  There  is  to  be 
a  game,  young  man,  and  you've  been  put  in  a 
position  to  play  in  it  when  the  time  comes.  But  I 
should  be  a  particularly  simple  kind  of  goose  to  tell 
you  about  it  beforehand  ;  now,  wouldn't  I  ?  " 

Thus  candidly  appealed  to,  Horace  could  not  but 
admit  that  his  companion's  caution  was  defensible. 

"  Please  yourself,"  he  said.  "  I  daresay  you're 
right  enough.  I've  got  the  position,  as  you  say. 
Perhaps  it  is  through  you  that  it  came  to  me  ;  I'll 
concede  that,  for  argument's  sake.  You  are  not  a 
man  who  expects  people  to  act  from  gratitude 
alone.  Therefore  you  don't  count  upon  my  doing 
things  for  you  in  this  position,  even  though  you 
put  me  there,  unless  you  first  convince  me  that  they 
will  also  benefit  me.  That  is  clear  enough,  isn't  it  ? 
Very  well  ;  thus  the  matter  stands.  When  the 
occasion  arises  that  you  need  me,  you  can  tell  me 
what  it  is,  and  what  I  am  to  get  out  of  it,  and  then 
we'll  talk  business." 

Mr.  Tenney  had  not  lifted  his  eyes  for  a  moment 
from  his  companion's  face.  Had  his  own  counte 
nance  been  one  on  which  inner  feelings  were  easily 
reflected,  it  would  just  now  have  worn  an  expression 
of  amused  contempt. 

"  Well,  this  much  I  might  as  well  tell  you  straight 
off,"  he  said.  "  A  part  of  my  notion,  if  everything 
goes  smoothly,  is  to  have  Mrs.  Minster  put  you  into 


232  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

the  Thessaly  Manufacturing  Company  as  her  repre 
sentative  and  to  pay  you  five  thousand  dollars  a 
year  for  it,  which  might  be  fixed  so  as  to  stand 
separate  from  the  other  work  you  do  for  her.  Wen- 
dover  can  arrange  that  with  her.  And  then  I  am 
counting  now  on  declaring  myself  up  at  the  Minster 
works,  and  putting  in  my  time  up  there  ;  so  that 
your  father  will  be  needed  again  in  the  store,  and  it 
might  be  so  that  I  could  double  his  salary,  and 
let  him  have  back  say  a  half  interest  in  the  busi 
ness,  and  put  him  on  his  feet.  I  say  these  things 
might  be  done.  I  don't  say  I've  settled  on  them, 
mind !  " 

"  And  you  still  think  it  best  to  keep  me  in  the 
dark  ;  not  to  tell  me  what  it  is  I'm  to  do  ? "  Horace 
leant  forward,  and  asked  this  question  eagerly. 

"  No-o — I'll  tell  you  this  much.  Your  business 
will  be  to  say  ditto  to  whatever  me  and  Wendover 
say." 

A  full  minute's  pause  ensued,  during  which  Mr. 
Tenney  gravely  watched  Horace  sip  what  remained 
of  his  drink. 

"  Well,  what  shall  it  be  ?  Do  you  go  in  with 
us?"  he  asked,  at  last. 

"  I'd  better  think  it  over,"  said  Horace.  "  Give 
me,  say,  till  Monday — that's  five  days.  And  of 
course,  if  I  do  say  yes,  it  will  be  understood  that  I 
am  not  to  be  bound  to  do  anything  of  a  shady  char 
acter." 

"  Certainly  ;  but  you  needn't  worry  about  that," 
answered  Tenney.  "  Everything  will  be  as  straight 


A  Simple  Business  Transaction.  233 

as  a  die.  There  will  be  nothing  but  a  simple  busi 
ness  transaction." 

"  What  did  you  mean  by  saying  that  we  should 
take  some  of  the  Minster  money  away  ?  That  had 
a  queer  sound." 

"  All  business  consists  in  getting  other  people's 
money,"  said  the  hardware  merchant,  sententiously. 
"  Where  do  you  suppose  Steve  Minster  got  his  mil 
lions  ?  Did  you  think  he  minted  them?  Didn't 
every  dollar  pass  through  some  other  fellow's  pocket 
before  it  reached  his  ?  The  only  difference  was  that 
when  it  got  into  his  pocket  it  stuck  there.  Every 
body  is  looking  out  to  get  rich ;  and  when  a  man 
succeeds,  it  only  means  that  somebody  else  has  got 
poor.  That's  plain  common-sense  !  " 

The  conversation  practically  ended  here.  Mr. 
Tenney  devoted  some  quarter  of  an  hour  to  going 
severally  over  all  the  papers  in  the  Minster  box,  but 
glancing  through  only  those  few  which  referred  to 
the  Thessaly  Manufacturing  Company.  The  pro 
ceeding  seemed  to  Horace  to  be  irregular,  but  he 
could  not  well  refuse,  and  Tenney  was  not  inter 
rupted.  When  he  had  finished  his  task  he  shook 
hands  with  Horace  with  a  novel  cordiality,  and  it 
was  not  difficult  to  guess  that  the  result  of  his 
search  had  pleased  him. 

"  You  are  sure  those  are  all  the  papers  Clarke  left 
to  be  turned  over  ?  "  he  asked.  Upon  being  assured 
in  the  affirmative  his  eyes  emitted  a  glance  which 
was  like  a  flash  of  light,  and  his  lip  lifted  in  a  smile 
of  obvious  elation. 


234  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

"  There's  a  fortune  for  both  of  us,"  he  said,  jubi 
lantly,  as  he  unlocked  the  door,  and  shook  hands 
again. 

When  he  had  gone,  Horace  poured  out  another 
drink  and  sat  down  to  meditate. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

NO    MESSAGE   FOR   MAMMA. 

FOUR  days  of  anxious  meditation  did  not  help 
Horace  Boyce  to  clear  his  mind,  and  on  the  fifth  he 
determined  upon  a  somewhat  desperate  step,  in  the 
hope  that  its  issue  would  assist  decision. 

His  dilemma  was  simple  enough  in  character. 
Two  ways  of  acquiring  a  fortune  lay  before  him. 
One  was  to  marry  Kate  Minster ;  the  other  was  to 
join  the  plot  against  her  property  and  that  of  her 
family,  which  the  subtile  Tenney  was  darkly  shaping. 

The  misery  of  the  situation  was  that  he  must  de 
cide  at  once  which  of  the  ways  he  would  choose.  In 
his  elation  at  being  selected  as  the  legal  adviser  and 
agent  of  these  millionnaire  women,  no  such  contin 
gency  as  this  had  been  foreseen.  He  had  assumed 
that  abundant  time  would  be  at  his  disposal,  and  he 
had  said  to  himself  that  with  time  all  things  may  be 
accomplished  with  all  women. 

But  this  precious  element  of  time  had  been  harshly 
cut  out  of  his  plans,  here  at  the  very  start.  The  few 
days  reluctantly  granted  him  had  gone  by,  one  by 
one,  with  cruel  swiftness,  and  to-morrow  would  be 
Monday — and  still  his  mind  was  not  made  up. 

If  he  could  be  assured  that  Miss  Minster  would 


236  The  Lawton  Girl. 

marry  him,  or  at  least  admit  him  to  the  vantage- 
ground  of  ^z/a^recognition  as  a  suitor,  the  difficulty 
would  be  solved  at  once.  He  would  turn  around 
and  defend  her  and  her  people  against  the  machina 
tions  of  Tenney.  Just  what  the  machinations  were 
he  could  not  for  the  life  of  him  puzzle  out,  but  he 
felt  sure  that,  whatever  their  nature,  he  could  defeat 
them,  if  only  he  were  given  the  right  to  do  battle  in 
the  name  of  the  family,  as  a  prospective  member 
of  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  might  be  that  he  had  no 
present  chance  with  Miss  Minster  as  an  eligible 
husband.  What  would  happen  if  he  relied  on  a 
prospect  which  turned  out  not  to  exist  ?  His  own 
opportunity  to  share  in  the  profits  of  Tenney's  plan 
would  be  abruptly  extinguished,  and  his  father  would 
be  thrown  upon  the  world  as  a  discredited  bankrupt. 
About  that  there  was  no  doubt. 

Sometimes  the  distracted  young  man  thought  he 
caught  glimpses  of  a  safe  middle  course.  In  these 
sanguine  moments  it  seemed  feasible  to  give  in  his 
adhesion  to  Tenney's  scheme,  and  go  along  with  him 
for  a  certain  time,  say  until  the  intentions  of  the 
conspirators  were  revealed.  Then  he  might  suddenly 
revolt,  throw  himself  into  a  virtuous  attitude,  and 
win  credit  and  gratitude  at  the  hands  of  the  family 
by  protecting  them  from  their  enemies.  Then  the 
game  would  be  in  his  own  hands,  and  no  mistake  ! 

But  there  were  other  times  when  this  course  did 
not  present  so  many  attractions  to  his  mind — when 
it  was  borne  in  upon  him  that  Tenney  would  be  a 


No  Message  for  Mamma.  237 

dangerous  kind  of  man  to  betray.  He  had  seen 
merciless  and  terrible  depths  in  the  gray  eyes  of  the 
hardware  merchant — depths  which  somehow  sug 
gested  bones  stripped  clean  of  their  flesh,  sucked  bare 
of  their  marrow,  at  the  bottom  of  a  gloomy  sea.  In 
these  seasons  of  doubt,  which  came  mostly  in  the 
early  morning  when  he  first  awoke,  the  mere  thought 
of  Tenney's  hatred  made  him  shudder.  It  was  as  if 
Hugo's  devil-fish  had  crawled  into  his  dreams. 

So  Sunday  afternoon  came  and  found  the  young 
man  still  perplexed  and  harassed.  To  do  him  jus 
tice,  he  had  once  or  twice  dwelt  momentarily  on  the 
plan  of  simply  defying  Tenney  and  doing  his  duty 
by  the  Minsters,  and  taking  his  chances.  But  these 
impulses  were  as  quickly  put  down.  The  case  was 
too  complicated  for  mere  honesty.  The  days  of 
martyrdom  were  long  since  past.  One  needed  to  be 
smarter  than  one's  neighbors  in  these  later  times. 
To  eat  others  was  the  rule  now,  if  one  would  save 
himself  from  being  devoured.  It  was  at  least  clear 
to  his  mind  that  he  must  be  smart,  and  play  his  hand 
so  as  to  get  the  odd  trick  even  if  honors  were  held 
against  him. 

Horace  decided  finally  that  the  wisest  thing  he 
could  do  would  be  to  call  upon  the  Minsters  before 
nightfall,  and  trust  to  luck  for  some  opportunity  of 
discovering  Miss  Kate's  state  of  mind  toward  him. 
He  was  troubled  more  or  less  by  fears  that  Sunday 
might  not  be  regarded  in  Thessaly  as  a  proper  day 
for  calls,  as  he  dressed  himself  for  the  adventure. 
But  when  he  got  upon  the  street,  the  fresh  air  and 


238  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

exhilaration  or  exercise  helped  to  reassure  him. 
Before  he  reached  the  Minster  gate  he  had  even 
grown  to  feel  that  the  ladies  had  probably  had  a  dull 
day  of  it,  and  would  welcome  his  advent  as  a  diver 
sion. 

He  was  shown  into  the  stately  parlor  to  the  left 
of  the  wide  hall — a  room  he  had  not  seen  before — 
and  left  to  sit  there  in  solitude  for  some  minutes. 
This  term  of  waiting  he  employed  in  looking  over 
the  portraits  on  the  wall  and  the  photographs  on  the 
mantels  and  tables.  Aside  from  several  pictures  of 
the  dissipated  Minster  boy  who  had  died,  he  could 
see  no  faces  of  young  men  anywhere,  and  he  felt 
this  to  be  a  good  sign  as  he  tiptoed  his  way  back  to 
his  seat  by  the  window. 

Fortune  smiled  at  least  upon  the  opening  of  his 
enterprise.  It  was  Miss  Kate  who  came  at  last  to 
receive  him,  and  she  came  alone.  The  young  man's 
cultured  sense  of  beauty  and  breeding  was  caressed 
and  captivated  as  it  had  never  been  before — at  least 
in  America,  he  made  mental  reservation — as  she 
came  across  the  room  toward  him,  and  held  out  her 
hand.  He  felt  himself  unexpectedly  at  ease,  as  he 
returned  her  greeting  and  looked  with  smiling 
warmth  into  her  splendid  eyes. 

His  talk  was  facile  and  pleasant.  He  touched 
lightly  upon  his  doubts  as  to  making  calls  on  Sun 
day,  and  how  they  were  overborne  by  the  unspeak 
able  tedium  of  his  own  rooms.  Then  he  spoke  of 
the  way  the  more  unconventional  circles  of  London 
utilize  the  day,  and  of  the  contrasting  features  of 


No  Message  for  Mamma.  239 

the  Continental  Sunday.  Miss  Kate  seemed  inter 
ested,  and  besides  explaining  that  her  mother  was 
writing  letters  and  that  her  sister  was  not  very  well, 
bore  a  courteous  and  affable  part  in  the  exchange  of 
small-talk. 

For  a  long  time  nothing  was  said  which  enabled 
Horace  to  feel  that  the  purpose  of  his  visit  had  been 
or  was  likely  to  be  served.  Then,  all  at  once, 
through  a  most  unlikely  channel,  the  needed  per 
sonal  element  was  introduced. 

"  Mamma  tells  me,"  she  said,  when  a  moment's 
pause  had  sufficed  to  dismiss  some  other  subject, 
"  that  she  has  turned  over  to  you  such  of  her  busi 
ness  as  poor  old  Mr.  Clarke  used  to  take  care  of,  and 
that  your  partner,  Mr.  Tracy,  has  nothing  to  do 
with  that  particular  branch  of  your  work.  Isn't  that 
unusual  ?  I  thought  partners  always  shared  every 
thing." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all,"  replied  Horace.  "  Mr.  Tracy, 
for  example,  has  railroad  business  which  he  keeps  to 
himself.  He  is  the  attorney  for  this  section  of  the 
road,  and  of  course  that  is  a  personal  appointment. 
He  couldn't  share  it  with  me,  any  more  than  the 
man  in  the  story  could  make  his  wife  and  children 
corporals  because  he  had  been  made  one  himself. 
Besides,  Mr.  Tracy  was  expressly  mentioned  by 
your  mother  as  not  to  be  included  in  the  transfer  of 
business.  It  was  her  notion." 

"  Ah,  indeed  ! "  said  that  young  woman,  with  a 
slight  instantaneous  lifting  of  the  black  brows  which 
Horace  did  not  catch.  "  Why  ?  Isn't  he  nice  ?  " 


240  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Well,  yes  ;  he's  an  extremely  good  fellow,  in 
his  way,"  the  partner  admitted,  looking  down  at  his 
glossy  boots  in  well-simulated  hesitation.  "  That 
little  word  '  nice  '  means  so  many  things  upon  fem 
inine  lips,  you  know,"  he  added  with  a  smile.  "  Per 
haps  he  wouldn't  answer  your  definition  of  it  all 
around.  He's  very  honest,  and  he  is  a  prodigious 
worker,  but — well,  to  be  frank,  he's  farm  bred,  and  I 
daresay  your  mother  suspected  the  existence  of — 
what  shall  I  say? — an  uncouth  side?  Really,  I 
don't  think  that  there  was  anything  more  than  that 
in  it." 

"  So  you  furnish  the  polish,  and  he  the  honesty 
and  industry?  Is  that  it  ?  " 

The  words  were  distinctly  unpleasant,  and  Horace 
looked  up  swiftly  to  the  speaker's  face,  feeling  that 
his  own  was  flushed.  But  Miss  Kate  was  smiling  at 
him,  with  a  quizzical  light  dancing  in  her  eyes,  and 
this  reassured  him  on  the  instant.  Evidently  she 
felt  herself  on  easy  terms  with  him,  and  this  was 
merely  a  bit  of  playful  chaff. 

"  We  don't  put  it  quite  in  that  way,"  he  said,  with 
an  answering  laugh.  "  It  would  be  rather  egotisti 
cal,  on  both  sides." 

"Nowadays  everybody  resents  that  imputation  as 
if  it  were  a  cardinal  sin.  There  was  a  time  when 
self-esteem  was  taken  for  granted.  I  suppose  it 
went  out  with  chain-armor  and  farthingales."  She 
spoke  in  a  musing  tone,  and  added  after  a  tiny  pause, 
"  That  must  have  been  a  happy  time,  at  least  for 
those  who  wore  the  armor  and  the  brocades." 


No  Message  for  Mamma.  241 

Horace  leaped  with  avidity  at  the  opening. 
"  Those  were  the  days  of  romance,"  he  said,  with  an 
effort  at  the  cooing  effect  in  his  voice.  "  Perhaps 
they  were  not  so  altogether  lovely  as  our  fancy 
paints  them  ;  but,  all  the  same,  it  is  very  sweet  to 
have  the  fancy.  Whether  it  be  historically  true  or 
not,  those  who  possess  it  are  rich  in  their  own  mind's 
right.  They  can  always  escape  from  the  grimy  and 
commercial  conditions  of  this  present  work-a-day 
life.  All  one's  finer  senses  can  feed,  for  example,  on 
a  glowing  account  of  an  old-time  tournament — with 
the  sun  shining  on  the  armor  and  burnished  shields, 
and  the  waving  plumes  and  iron-clad  horses  and  the 
heralds  in  tabards,  and  the  rows  of  fair  ladies  clus 
tered  about  the  throne — as  it  is  impossible  to  do  on 
the  report  of  a  meeting  of  a  board  of  directors,  even 
when  they  declare  you  an  exceptionally  large  divi 
dend." 

The  young  man  kept  a  close  watch  upon  this  flow 
of  words  as  it  proceeded,  and  felt  satisfied  with  it. 
The  young  woman  seemed  to  like  it  too,  for  she  had 
sunk  back  into  her  chair  with  an  added  air  of  ease, 
and  looked  at  him  now  with  what  he  took  to  be  a 
more  sympathetic  glance,  as  she  made  answer: 

"  Why,  you  are  positively  romantic,  Mr.  Boyce  !  " 

"Me?  My  dear  Miss  Minster,  I  am  the  most 
sentimental  person  alive,"  Horace  protested  gayly. 

"  Don't  you  find  that  it  interferes  with  your  pro 
fession  ?  "  she  asked,  with  that  sparkle  of  banter  in 
her  dark  eyes  which  he  began  to  find  so  delicious. 
"  I  thought  lawyers  had  to  eschew  sentiment.  Or 

16 


242  The  Lawton  Girl. 

perhaps  you  supply  that,  too,  in  this  famous  partner- 
ship  of  yours!  " 

Horace  laughed  with  pleasure.  "  Would  you  like 
me  the  less  if  I  admitted  it?  "  he  queried. 

"  How  could  I  ?"  she  replied  on  the  instant,  still 
with  the  smile  which  kept  him  from  shaping  a  harsh 
interpretation  of  her  words.  "  But  isn't  Thessaly  a 
rather  incongruous  place  for  sentimental  people? 
We  have  no  tourney-field — only  rolling-mills  and 
button-factories  and  furnaces  ;  and  there  isn't  a 
knight,  much  less  a  herald  in  a  tabard,  left  in  the 
whole  village.  Their  places  have  been  taken  by 
moulders  and  puddlers.  So  what  will  the  minstrel 
do  then,  poor  thing  ?  " 

"  Let  him  come  here  sometimes,"  said  the  young 
man,  in  the  gravely  ardent  tone  which  this  sort  of 
situation  demanded.  "  Let  him  come  here,  and  for 
get  that  this  is  the  nineteenth  century;  forget  time 
and  Thessaly  altogether." 

"  Oh,  but  mamma  wouldn't  like  that  at  all  ;  I 
mean  about  your  forgetting  so  much.  She  expects 
you  particularly  to  remember  both  time  and  Thes 
saly.  No,  decidedly ;  that  would  never  do  !  " 

The  smile  and  the  glance  were  intoxicating.  The 
young  man  made  his  plunge. 

"  But  may  I  come  ?"  His  voice  had  become  low 
and  vibrant,  and  it  went  on  eagerly :  "  May  I  come 
if  I  promise  to  remember  everything  ;  if  I  swear 
to  remember  nothing  else  save  what  you — and 
your  mother — would  have  me  charge  my  memory 
with  ?  " 


No  Message  for  Mamma.  243 

"  We  are  always  glad  to  see  our  friends  on  Tues 
days,  from  two  to  five." 

"  But  I  am  not  in  the  plural,"  he  urged,  gently. 

"  We  are,"  she  made  answer,  still  watching  him 
with  a  smile,  from  where  she  half-reclined  in  the 
easy-chair.  Her  face  was  in  the  shadow  of  the 
heavier  under-curtains ;  the  mellow  light  gave  it  a 
uniform  tint  of  ivory  washed  with  rose,  and  enriched 
the  wonder  of  her  eyes,  and  softened  into  melting 
witchery  the  lines  of  lips  and  brows  and  of  the  raven 
diadem  of  curls  upon  her  forehead. 

"  Yes ;  in  that  the  graces  and  charms  of  a  thou 
sand  perfect  women  are  centred  here  in  one,"  mur 
mured  Horace.  It  was  in  his  heart  as  well  as  his 
head  to  say  more,  but  now  she  rose  abruptly  at  this, 
with  a  laugh  which  for  the  instant  disconcerted 
him. 

"  Oh,  I  foresee  such  a  future  for  this  firm  of 
yours,"  she  cried,  with  high  merriment  alike  in 
voice  and  face. 

As  they  both  stood  in  the  full  light  of  the  window, 
the  young  man  somehow  seemed  to  miss  that  yield 
ing  softness  in  her  face  which  had  lulled  his  sense 
and  fired  his  senses  in  the  misleading  shadows  of  the 
curtain.  It  was  still  a  very  beautiful  face,  but  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  self-possession  in  it.  Perhaps  it 
would  be  as  well  just  now  to  go  no  further. 

"We  must  try  to  live  up  to  your  good  opinion, 
and  your  kindly  forecast,"  he  said,  as  he  moment 
arily  touched  the  hand  she  offered  him.  "  You  can 
not  possibly  imagine  how  glad  I  am  to  have  braved 


244  The  Lawton  Girl. 

the  conventionalities  in  calling,  and  to  have  found 
you  at  home.  It  has  transformed  the  rural  Sunday 
from  a  burden  into  a  beatitude." 

"  How  pretty,  Mr.  Boyce  !  Is  there  any  message 
for  mamma  ?" 

"  Oh,  why  did  you  say  that?"  He  ventured  upon 
a  tone  of  mock  vexation.  "  I  wanted  so  much  to  go 
away  with  the  fancy  that  this  was  an  enchanted 
palace,  and  that  you  were  shut  up  alone  in  it,  wait 
ing  for — " 

"  Tuesdays,  from  two  till  five,"  she  broke  in,  with 
a  bow,  in  the  same  spirit  of  amiable  raillery,  and  so 
he  said  good-by  and  made  his  way  out. 

Had  he  succeeded  ?  Was  there  a  promise  of  suc 
cess?  Horace  took  a  long  walk  before  he  finally 
turned  his  steps  homeward,  and  pondered  these 
problems  excitedly  in  his  mind.  On  the  whole,  he 
concluded  that  he  could  win  her.  That  she  was  for 
herself  better  worth  the  winning  than  even  for  her 
million,  he  said  to  himself  over  and  over  again  with 
rapture. 

Miss  Kate  went  up-stairsand  into  the  sitting-room 
common  to  the  sisters,  in  which  Ethel  lay  on  the 
sofa  in  front  of  the  fire-place.  She  knelt  beside  this 
sofa,  and  held  her  hands  over  the  subdued  flame  of 
the  maple  sticks  on  the  hearth. 

"  It  is  so  cold  down  in  the  parlor,"  she  remarked, 
by  way  of  explanation. 

"  He  stayed  an  unconscionable  while,"  said  Ethel. 
"  What  could  he  have  talked  about?  I  had  almost 


No  Message  for  Mamma.  245 

a  mind  to  waive  my  headache  and  come  down  to 
find  out.  It  was  a  full  hour." 

"  He  wouldn't  have  thanked  you  if  you  had,  my 
little  girl,"  replied  Kate  with  a  smile. 

"  Does  he  dislike  little  girls  of  nineteen  so  much? 
How  unique !  " 

"  No  ;  but  he  came  to  make  love  to  the  big  girl ; 
that  is  why." 

Ethel  sat  bolt  upright.  "You  don't  mean  it!" 
she  said,  with  her  hazel  eyes  wide  open. 

11  He  did,"  was  the  sententious  reply.  Kate  was 
busy  warming  the  backs  of  her  hands  now. 

"  Goodness  me  !  And  I  lay  here  all  the  while, 
and  never  had  so  much  as  a  premonition.  Oh,  what 
was  it  like  ?  Did  he  get  on  his  knees  ?  Was  it  very, 
very  funny  ?  Make  haste  and  tell  me." 

"  Well,  it  was  funny,  after  a  fashion.  At  least,  we 
both  laughed  a  good  deal." 

"  How  touching  !     Well  ?  " 

"  That  is  all.  I  laughed  at  him,  and  he  laughed — 
I  suppose  it  must  have  been  at  me — and  he  paid  me 
some  quite  thrilling  compliments,  and  I  replied, 
'  Tuesdays,  from  two  to  five/  like  an  educated  jack 
daw — and — that  was  all." 

"  What  a  romance  !  How  could  you  think  of  such 
a  clever  answer,  right  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
too  ?  But  I  always  said  you  were  the  bright  one  of 
the  family,  Kate.  Perhaps  one's  mind  works  better 
in  the  cold,  anyway.  But  I  think  he  might  have 
knelt  down.  You  should  have  put  him  close  to  the 
register.  I  daresay  the  cold  stiffened  his  joints." 


246  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Will  you  ever  be  serious,  child?" 

Ethel  took  her  sister's  head  in  her  hands  and 
turned  it  gently,  so  that  she  might  look  into  the 
other's  face. 

"  Is  it  possible  that  you  are  serious,  Kate  ?  "  she 
asked,  in  tender  wonderment. 

The  elder  girl  laughed,  and  lifted  herself  to  sit  on 
the  sofa  beside  Ethel. 

"  No,  no  ;  of  course  it  isn't  possible,"  she  said,  and 
put  her  arm  about  the  invalid's  slender  waist.  "  But 
he's  great  fun  to  talk  to.  I  chaffed  him  to  my 
heart's  content,  and  he  saw  what  I  meant,  every 
time,  and  didn't  mind  in  the  least,  and  gave  me  as 
good  as  I  sent.  It's  such  a  relief  to  find  somebody 
you  can  say  saucy  things  to,  and  be  quite  sure  they 
understand  them.  I  began  by  disliking  him — and 
he  is  as  conceited  as  a  popinjay — but  then  he  com 
prehended  everything  so  perfectly,  and  talked  so 
well,  that  positively  I  found  myself  enjoying  it. 
And  he  knew  his  own  mind,  too,  and  was  resolved 
to  say  nice  things  to  me,  and  said  them,  whether  I 
liked  or  not." 

"  But  did  you  '  like,'  Kate  ?  " 

"  No-o,  I  think  not,"  the  girl  replied,  musingly. 
"  But,  all  the  same,  there  was  a  kind  of  satisfaction 
in  hearing  them,  don't  you  know." 

The  younger  girl  drew  her  sister's  head  down  to 
her  shoulder,  and  caressed  it  with  her  thin,  white 
fingers. 

"You  are  not  going  to  let  your  mind  drift  into 
anything  foolish,  Kate  ?  "  she  said,  with  a  quaver  of 


No  Message  for  Mamma.  247 

anxiety  in  her  tone.  "  You  don't  know  the  man. 
You  don't  even  like  him.  You  told  me  so,  even 
from  what  you  saw  of  him  on  the  train  coming  from 
New  York.  You  said  he  patronized  everybody  and 
everything,  and  didn't  have  a  good  word  to  say  for 
any  one.  Don't  you  know  you  did  ?  And  those 
first  impressions  are  always  nearest  the  truth." 

This  recalled  something  to  Kate's  mind.  "  You 
are  right,  puss,"  she  said.  "  It  is  a  failing  of  his. 
He  spoke  to-day  almost  contemptuously  of  his  part 
ner — that  Mr.  Tracy  whom  I  met  in  the  milliner's 
shop  ;  and  that  annoyed  me  at  the  time,  for  I 
liked  Mr.  Tracy's  looks  and  talk  very  much  indeed, 
/shouldn't  call  him  uncouth,  at  all." 

"That  was  that  Boyce  man's  word,  was  it?"  com 
mented  Ethel.  "  Well,  then,  I  think  that  beside  his 
partner,  he  is  a  pretentious,  disagreeable  monkey — 
there  !  " 

Kate  smiled  at  her  sister's  vehemence.  "At  least 
it  is  an  unprejudiced  judgment,"  she  said.  "You 
don't  know  either  of  them." 

"But  I've  seen  them  both,"  replied  Ethel,  con 
clusively. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE   MAN    FROM   NEW   YORK. 

IN  the  great  field  of  armed  politics  in  Europe, 
every  now  and  again  there  arises  a  situation  which 
everybody  agrees  must  inevitably  result  in  war. 
Yet  just  when  the  newspapers  have  reached  their 
highest  state  of  excitement,  and  "  sensational  inci 
dents  "  and  "  significant  occurrences"  are  crowding 
one  another  in  the  hurly-burly  of  alarmist  despatches 
with  utmost  impressiveness,  somehow  the  cloud 
passes  away,  and  the  sun  comes  out  again — and 
nothing  has  happened. 

The  sun  did  not  precisely  shine  for  Horace  Boyce 
in  the  weeks  which  now  ensued,  but  at  least  the 
crisis  that  had  threatened  to  engulf  him  was  curi 
ously  delayed.  Mr.  Tenney  did  not  even  ask  him, 
on  that  dreaded  Monday,  what  decision  he  had 
arrived  at.  A  number  of  other  Mondays  went  by, 
and  still  no  demand  was  made  upon  him  to  announce 
his  choice.  On  the  few  occasions  when  he  met  his 
father's  partner,  it  was  the  pleasure  of  that  gentle 
man  to  talk  on  other  subjects. 

The  young  man  began  to  regain  his  equanimity. 
The  February  term  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  had  come 
and  gone,  and  Horace  was  reasonably  satisfied  with 
the  forensic  display  he  had  made.  It  would  have 


The  Man  from  New   York.  249 

been  much  better,  he  knew,  if  he  had  not  been  wor 
ried  about  the  other  thing ;  but,  as  it  was,  he  had 
won  two  of  the  four  cases  in  which  he  appeared,  had 
got  on  well  with  the  judge,  who  invited  him  to  din 
ner  at  the  Dearborn  House,  and  had  been  congratu 
lated  on  his  speeches  by  quite  a  number  of  lawyers. 
His  foothold  in  Thessaly  was  established. 

Matters  about  the  office  had  not  gone  altogether 
to  his  liking,  it  was  true.  For  some  reason,  Reuben 
seemed  all  at  once  to  have  become  more  distant  and 
formal  with  him.  Horace  could  not  dream  that  this 
arose  from  the  discoveries  his  partner  had  made  at 
the  milliner's  shop,  and  so  put  the  changed  demeanor 
down  vaguely  to  Reuben's  jealousy  of  his  success  in 
court.  He  was  sorry  that  this  was  so,  because  he 
liked  Reuben  personally,  and  the  silly  fellow  ought 
to  be  glad  that  he  had  such  a  showy  and  clever 
partner,  instead  of  sulking.  Horace  began  to  harbor 
the  notion  that  a  year  of  this  partnership  would 
probably  be  enough  for  him. 

The  Citizens'  Club  had  held  two  meetings,  and 
Horace  felt  that  the  manner  in  which  he  had  presided 
and  directed  the  course  of  action  at  these  gatherings 
had  increased  his  hold  upon  the  town.  Nearly  fifty 
men  had  now  joined  the  club,  and  next  month  they 
were  to  discuss  the  question  of  a  permanent  habita 
tion.  They  all  seemed  to  like  him  as  president, 
and  nebulous  thoughts  about  being  the  first  mayor 
of  Thessaly,  when  the  village  should  get  its  charter, 
now  occasionally  floated  across  the  young  man's 
mind. 


250  The  Lawton  Girl. 

He  had  called  at  the  Minster  house  on  each  Tues- 
day  since  that  conversation  with  Miss  Kate,  and  now 
felt  himself  to  be  on  terms  almost  intimate  with  the 
whole  household.  He  could  not  say,  even  to  him 
self,  that  his  suit  had  progressed  much;  but  Miss 
Kate  seemed  to  like  him,  and  her  mother,  whom  he 
also  had  seen  at  other  times  on  matters  of  business, 
was  very  friendly  indeed. 

Thus  affairs  stood  with  the  rising  young  lawyer  at 
the  beginning  of  March,  when  he  one  day  received  a 
note  sent  across  by  hand  from  Mr.  Tenney,  asking 
him  to  come  over  at  once  to  the  Dearborn  House, 
and  meet  him  in  a  certain  room  designated  by 
number. 

Horace  was  conscious  of  some  passing  surprise 
that  Tenney  should  make  appointments  in  private 
rooms  of  the  local  hotel,  but  as  he  crossed  the  street 
to  the  old  tavern  and  climbed  the  stairs  to  the  apart 
ment  named,  it  did  not  occur  to  him  that  the  sum 
mons  might  signify  that  the  crisis  which  had  dark- 
ened  the  first  weeks  of  February  was  come  again. 

He  found  Tenney  awaiting  him  at  the  door,  and 
after  he  had  perfunctorily  shaken  hands  with  him, 
discovered  that  there  was  another  man  inside,  seated 
at  the  table  in  the  centre  of  the  parlor,  under  the 
chandelier.  This  man  was  past  middle-age,  and  both 
his  hair  and  the  thick,  short  beard  which  covered  his 
chin  and  throat  were  nearly  white.  Horace  noted 
first  that  his  long  upper  lip  was  shaven,  and  this 
grated  upon  him  afresh  as  one  of  the  least  lovely  of 
provincial  American  customs.  Then  he  observed 


The  Man  front  New   York,  251 

that  this  man  had  eyes  like  Tenney's  in  expression, 
though  they  were  blue  instead  of  gray ;  and  as  this 
resemblance  came  to  him,  Tenney  spoke : 

"  Judge  Wendover,  this  is  the  young  man  we've 
been  talking  about — Mr.  Horace  Boyce,  son  of  my 
partner,  the  General,  you  know." 

The  mysterious  New  Yorker  had  at  last  appeared 
on  the  scene,  then.  He  did  not  look  very  mysteri 
ous,  or  very  metropolitan  either,  as  he  rose  slowly 
and  reached  his  hand  across  the  table  for  Horace  to 
shake.  It  was  a  fat  and  inert  hand,  and  the  Judge 
himself,  now  that  he  stood  up,  was  seen  to  be  also 
fat  and  dumpy  in  figure,  with  a  bald  head,  noticeably 
high  at  the  back  of  the  skull,  and  a  loose,  badly  fitted 
suit  of  clothes. 

"  Sit  down,"  he  said  to  Horace,  much  as  if  that 
young  man  had  been  a  stenographer  called  in  to 
report  a  conversation.  Horace  took  the  chair  indi 
cated,  not  over  pleased. 

"I  haven't  got  much  time,"  the  Judge  continued, 
speaking  apparently  to  the  papers  in  front  of  him. 
"  There's  a  good  deal  to  do,  and  I've  got  to  catch  that 
5.22  train." 

"  New  Yorkers  generally  do  have  to  catch  trains," 
remarked  Horace.  "  So  far  as  I  could  see,  the  few 
times  I've  been  there  of  late  years,  that  is  always 
the  chief  thing  on  their  minds." 

Judge  Wendover  looked  at  the  young  man  for  the 
space  of  a  second,  and  then  turned  to  Tenney  and 
said  abruptly  : 

"  I    suppose    he  knows    how    the    Thessaly  Mfg. 


2$2  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Company  stands  ?  How  it's  stocked  ?  "  He  pro 
nounced  the  three  letters  with  a  slurring  swiftness, 
as  if  to  indicate  that  there  was  not  time  enough  for 
the  full  word  "  manufacturing." 

Horace  himself  answered  the  question  :  "  Yes,  I 
know.  You  represent  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
to  my  clients'  one  hundred  and  seventy-five."  The 
young  man  held  himself  erect  and  alert  in  his  chair, 
and  spoke  curtly. 

"Just  so.  The  capital  is  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars — all  paid  up.  Well,  we  need  that  much  more 
to  go  on." 

"  How  'go  on '  ?     What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  There's  a  new  nail  machine  just  out  which  makes 
our  plant  worthless.  To  buy  that,  and  make  the 
changes,  will  cost  a  round  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Get  hold  of  that  machine,  and  we  control 
the  whole  United  States  market ;  fail  to  get  it,  we 
go  under.  That's  the  long  and  short  of  it.  That's 
why  we  sent  for  you." 

"I'm  very  sorry,"  said  Horace,  "but  I  don't  hap 
pen  to  have  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  with  me 
just  at  the  moment.  If  you'd  let  me  known  earlier, 
now." 

The  Judge  looked  at  him  again,  with  the  imper 
sonal  point-blank  stare  of  a  very  rich  and  pre-occu- 
pied  old  man.  Evidently  this  young  fellow  thought 
himself  a  joker. 

"  Don't  fool,"  he  said,  testily.  "  Business  is  busi 
ness,  time  is  money.  We  can't  increase  our  capital 
by  law,  but  we  can  borrow.  You  haven't  got  any 


The  Man  from  New   York.  253 

money,  but  the  Minster  women  have.  It's  to  their 
interest  to  stand  by  us.  They've  got  almost  as  much 
in  the  concern  as  we  have.  I've  seen  the  widow  and 
explained  the  situation  to  her.  She  understands  it. 
But  she  won't  back  our  paper,  because  her  husband 
on  his  death-bed  made  her  promise  never  to  do  that 
for  anybody.  Curious  prejudice  these  countrymen 
have  about  indorsing  notes.  Business  would  stag 
nate  in  a  day  without  indorsing.  However,  I  had 
another  plan.  Let  her  issue  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  bonds  on  the  iron-works.  That's  about 
a  third  what  they  are  worth.  She'll  consent  to  that 
if  you  talk  to  her." 

"  Oh,  that's  where  I  come  in,  is  it  ?  "  said  Hor 
ace. 

"  Where  else  did  you  suppose  ? "  asked  the 
Judge,  puffing  for  breath,  as  he  eyed  the  young 
man. 

No  answer  was  forthcoming,  and  the  New  Yorker 
went  on  : 

"  The  interest  on  those  bonds  will  cost  her  twenty- 
four  thousand  dollars  per  year  for  a  year  or  two,  but 
it  will  make  her  shares  in  the  Mfg.  Company  a  real 
property  instead  of  a  paper  asset.  Besides,  I've 
shown  her  a  way  to-day,  by  going  into  the  big  pig- 
iron  trust  that  is  being  formed,  of  making  twice  that 
amount  in  half  the  time.  Now,  she's  going  to  talk 
with  you  about  both  these  things.  Your  play  is  to 
advise  her  to  do  what  I've  suggested." 

"Why  should  I?"  Horace  put  the  question 
bluntly. 


254  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"I'll  tell  you/'  answered  the  Judge,  who  seemed 
to  like  this  direct  way  of  dealing.  "  You  can  make 
a  pot  of  money  by  it.  And  that  isn't  all.  Tenney 
and  I  are  not  fishing  with  pin-hooks  and  thread. 
We've  got  nets,  young  man.  You  tie  up  to  us,  and 
we'll  take  care  of  you.  When  you  see  a  big  thing 
like  this  travelling  your  way,  hitch  on  to  it.  That's 
the  way  fortunes  are  made.  And  you've  got  a 
chance  that  don't  come  to  one  young  fellow  in  ten 
thousand." 

"  I  should  think  he  had,"  put  in  Mr.  Tenney,  who 
had  been  a  silent  but  attentive  auditor. 

"What  will  happen  if  I  decline?"  asked  Hor 
ace. 

"  She  will  lose  her  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars  and  a  good  deal  more,  and  you  will 
lose  your  business  with  her  and  with  everybody 
else." 

"And  your  father  will  lose  the  precious  little  he's 
got  left,"  put  in  Mr.  Tenney. 

Horace  tried  to  smile.  "  Upon  my  word,  you  are 
frank,"  he  said. 

"There's  no  time  to  be  anything  else,"  replied  the 
Judge.  "And  why  shouldn't  we  be?  We  simply 
state  facts  to  you.  A  great  commercial  transaction, 
involving  profits  to  everybody,  is  outlined  before 
you.  It  happens  that  by  my  recommendation  you 
are  in  a  place  where  you  can  embarrass  its  success, 
for  a  minute  or  two,  if  you  have  a  mind  to.  But 
why  in  God's  name  you  should  have  a  mind  to,  or 
why  you  take  up  time  by  pretending  to  be  offish 


The  Man  from  New   York.  25$ 

about  it,  is  more  than  I  can  make  out.  Damn  it, 
sir,  you're  not  a  woman,  who  wants  to  be  asked  a 
dozen  times!  You're  a  man,  lucky  enough  to  be 
associated  with  other  men  who  have  their  heads 
screwed  on  the  right  way,  and  so  don't  waste  any 
more  time." 

"  Oh,  that  reminds  me,"  said  Horace,  "  I  haven't 
thanked  you  for  recommending  me." 

"  You  needn't,"  replied  the  Judge,  bluntly.  "  It 
was  Tenney's  doing.  I  didn't  know  you  from  a  side 
of  sole-leather.  But  he  thought  you  were  the  right 
man  for  the  place." 

"  I  hope  you  are  not  disappointed,"  Horace  re 
marked,  with  a  questioning  smile. 

"A  minute  will  tell  me  whether  I  am  or  not,"  the 
New  York  man  exclaimed,  letting  his  fat  hand  fall 
upon  the  table.  "  Come,  what  is  your  answer?  Are 
you  with  us,  or  against  us?  " 

"  At  all  events  not  against  you,  I  should  hope." 

"  Damn  the  man  !  Hasn't  he  got  a  '  yes  '  or  '  no  ' 
in  him  ? — Tenney,  you're  to  blame  for  this,"  snapped 
Wendover,  pulling  his  watch  from  the  fob  in  his 
tightened  waistband,  and  scowling  at  the  dial.  "  I'll 
have  to  run,  as  it  is." 

He  rose  again  from  his  chair,  and  bent  a  sharp 
gaze  upon  Horace's  face. 

"  Well,  young  man,"  he  demanded,  "  what  is  your 
answer?  " 

"  I  think  I  can  see  my  way  to  obliging  you,"  said 
Horace,  hesitatingly.  "  But,  of  course,  I  want  to 
know  just  how  I  am  to  stand  in  the — " 


2 $6  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"That  Tenney  will  see  to,"  said  the  Judge,  swiftly, 
He  gathered  up  the  papers  on  the  table,  thrust  them 
into  a  portfolio  with  a  lock  on  it,  which  he  gave  to 
Tenney,  snatched  his  hat,  and  was  gone,  without  a 
word  of  adieu  to  anybody. 

"  Great  man  of  business,  that  ! "  remarked  the 
hardware  merchant,  after  a  moment  of  silence. 

Horace  nodded  assent,  but  his  mind  had  not  fol 
lowed  the  waddling  figure  of  the  financier.  It  was 
dwelling  perplexedly  upon  the  outcome  of  this  ad 
venture  upon  which  he  seemed  to  be  fully  embarked, 
and  trying  to  establish  a  conviction  that  it  would 
be  easy  to  withdraw  from  it  at  will,  later  on. 

"  He  can  make  millions  where  other  men  only  see 
thousands,  and  they  beyond  their  reach,"  pursued 
Tenney,  in  an  abstracted  voice.  "  When  he's  your 
friend,  there  isn't  anything  you  can't  do;  and  he's  as 
straight  as  a  string,  too,  so  long  as  he  likes  a  man. 
But  he's  a  terror  to  have  ag'in  you." 

Horace  sat  closeted  with  Tenney  for  a  long  time, 
learning  the  details  of  the  two  plans  which  had  been 
presented  to  Mrs.  Minster,  and  which  he  was  ex 
pected  to  support.  The  sharpest  scrutiny  could 
detect  nothing  dishonest  in  them.  Both  involved 
mere  questions  of  expediency — to  loan  money  in 
support  of  one's  stock,  and  to  enter  a  trust  which 
was  to  raise  the  price  of  one's  wares — and  it  was 
not  difficult  for  Horace  to  argue  himself  into  the 
belief  that  both  promised  to  be  beneficial  to  his 
client. 

At  the  close  of  the  interview  Horace  said  plainly 


The  Man  from  New   York.  257 

to  his  companion  that  he  saw  no  reason  why  he 
should  not  advise  Mrs.  Minster  to  adopt  both  of  the 
Judge's  recommendations.  "  They  seem  perfectly 
straightforward,"  he  added. 

"  Did  you  expect  anything  else,  knowing  me  all 
this  while  ?  "  asked  Tenney,  reproachfully. 

17 


CHAPTER    XXI. 
REUBEN'S  MOMENTOUS  FIRST  VISIT. 

SOME  ten  days  later,  Reuben  Tracy  was  vastly 
surprised  one  afternoon  to  receive  a  note  from  Miss 
Minster.  The  office-boy  said  that  the  messenger 
was  waiting  for  an  answer,  and  had  been  warned  to 
hand  the  missive  to  no  one  except  him.  The  note 
ran  thus : 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  hope  very  much  that  you  can  find  time  to  call  here 
at  our  house  during  the  afternoon.  Pray  ask  for  me,  and  do  not 
mention  to  any  one  that  you  are  coming. 

It  will  not  seem  to  you,  I  am  sure,  that  I  have  taken  a  liberty 
either  in  my  request  or  my  injunction,  after  you  have  heard  the  ex 
planation.  Sincerely  yours, 

KATE  MINSTER. 

Reuben  sent  back  a  written  line  to  say  that  he 
would  come  within  an  hour,  and  then  tried  to  devote 
himself  to  the  labor  of  finishing  promptly  the  task 
he  had  in  hand.  It  was  a  very  simple  piece  of  con 
veyancing — work  he  generally  performed  with  facil 
ity — but  to-day  he  found  himself  spoiling  sheet  after 
sheet  of  "  legal  cap,"  by  stupid  omissions  and  un 
conscious  inversions  of  the  quaint  legal  phraseology. 
His  thoughts  would  not  be  enticed  away  from  the 
subject  of  the  note — the  perfume  of  which  was 


Reuben's  Momentous  First   Visit.  259 

apparent  upon  the  musty  air  of  the  office,  even  as 
it  lay  in  its  envelope  before  him.  There  was  nothing 
remarkable  in  the  fact  that  Miss  Minster  wanted  to 
see  him — of  course,  it  was  with  reference  to  Jessica's 
plan  for  the  factory-girls — but  the  admonition  to 
secrecy  puzzled  him  a  good  deal.  The  word  "  ex 
planation,"  too,  had  a  portentous  look.  What  could 
it  mean  ? 

Mrs.  Minster  had  been  closeted  in  the  library  with 
her  lawyer,  Mr.  Horace  Boyce,  for  fully  two  hours 
that  forenoon,  and  afterward,  in  the  hearing  of  her 
daughters,  had  invited  him  to  stay  for  luncheon. 
He  had  pleaded  pressure  of  business  as  an  excuse 
for  not  accepting  the  invitation,  and  had  taken  a 
hurried  departure  forthwith. 

The  two  girls  exchanged  glances  at  all  this.  Mr. 
Boyce  had  never  been  asked  before  to  the  family 
table,  and  there  was  something  pre-occupied,  almost 
brusque,  in  his  manner  of  declining  the  exceptional 
honor  and  hurrying  off  as  he  did.  They  noted,  too, 
that  their  mother  seemed  unwontedly  excited  about 
something,  and  experience  told  them  that  her  calm 
Knickerbocker  nature  was  not  to  be  stirred  by  triv 
ial  matters. 

So,  while  they  lingered  over  the  jellied  dainties  of 
the  light  noonday  meal,  Kate  made  bold  to  put  the 
question  : 

"  Something  is  worrying  you,  mamma,"  she  said. 
"  Is  it  anything  that  we  know  about  ?  " 

"  Mercy,  no  !  "  Mrs.  Minster  replied.     "  It  is  noth- 


260  The  Lawton  Girl. 

ing  at  all.  Of  course,  I'm  not  worried.  What  an 
idea!" 

"  I  thought  you  acted  as  if  there  was  something 
on  your  mind,"  said  Kate. 

"  Well,  you  would  act  so,  too,  if—  There  Mrs. 
Minster  stopped  short,  and  sighed. 

"If  what,  mamma?"  put  in  Ethel.  "  We  knew 
there  was  something." 

"  He  sticks  to  it  that  issuing  bonds  is  not  mortga 
ging,  and,  of  course,  he  ought  to  know  ;  but  I  remem 
ber  that  when  they  bonded  our  town  for  the  Har 
lem  road,  father  said  it  was  a  mortgage,"  answered 
the  mother,  not  over  luminously. 

"  What  bonds  ?  What  mortgage  ?  "  Kate  spoke 
with  emphasis.  "  We  have  a  right  to  know,  surely  !  " 

"  However,  you  can  see  for  yourself,"  pursued  Mrs. 
Minster,  "  that  the  interest  must  be  more  than  made 
up  by  the  extra  price  iron  will  bring  when  the 
trust  puts  up  prices.  That  is  what  trusts  are  for — 
to  put  up  prices.  You  can  read  that  in  the  papers 
everyday." 

"  Mother,  what  have  you  done  ?  " 

Kate  had  pushed  back  her  plate,  and  leaned  over 
the  table  now,  flashing  sharp  inquiry  into  her  moth 
er's  face. 

"  What  have  you  done  ?"  she  repeated.  "  I  insist 
upon  knowing,  and  so  does  Ethel." 

Mrs.  Minster's  wise  and  resolute  countenance 
never  more  thoroughly  belied  the  condition  of  her 
mind  than  at  this  moment.  She  felt  that  she  did 
not  rightly  know  just  what  she  had  done,  and  vague 


Reuberis  Momentous  First   Visit.  261 

fears  as  to  consequences  rose  to  possess  her 
soul. 

"  If  I  had  spoken  to  my  mother  in  that  way  when 
I  was  your  age,  I  should  have  been  sent  from  the 
room — big  girl  though  I  was.  I'm  sure  I  can't  guess 
where  you  take  your  temper  from.  The  Mauveren- 
sens  were  always — " 

This  was  not  satisfactory,  and  Kate  broke  into  the 
discourse  about  her  maternal  ancestors  perempto 
rily  : 

"  I  don't  care  about  all  that.  But  some  business 
step  has  been  taken,  and  it  must  concern  Ethel  and 
me,  and  I  wish  you  would  tell  us  plainly  what  it  is." 

"  The  Thessaly  Company  found  it  necessary  to 
buy  the  right  of  a  new  nail  machine,  and  they  had 
to  have  money  to  do  it  with,  and  so  some  bonds 
are  to  be  issued  to  provide  it.  It  is  quite  the  cus 
tomary  thing,  I  assure  you,  in  business  affairs.  Only, 
what  I  maintained  was  that  it  was  the  same  as  a 
mortgage,  but  Judge  Wendover  and  Mr.  Boyce  in 
sisted  it  wasn't." 

It  is,  perhaps,  an  interesting  commentary  upon  the 
commercial  education  of  these  two  wealthy  young 
ladies,  that  they  themselves  were  unable  to  form  an 
opinion  upon  this  debated  point. 

"  Bonds  are  something  like  stocks,"  Ethel  ex 
plained.  "  They  are  always  mentioned  together. 
But  mortgages  must  be  different,  for  they  are  kept 
in  the  county  clerk's  office.  I  know  that,  because 
Ella  Dupont's  father  used  to  get  paid  fifty  cents 
apiece  for  searching  after  them  there.  She  told  me 


262  The  Lawton  Girl. 

so.  They  must  have  been  very  careless  to  lose  them 
so  often." 

Mrs.  Minster  in  some  way  regarded  this  as  a  de 
fence  of  her  action,  and  took  heart.  "  Well,  then,  I 
also  signed  an  agreement  which  puts  us  into  the 
great  combination  they're  getting  up — all  the  iron 
manufacturers  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  and  New 
York — called  the  Amalgamated  Pig-iron  Trust.  I 
was  very  strongly  advised  to  do  that  ;  and  it  stands 
to  reason  that  prices  will  go  up,  because  trusts  limit 
production.  Surely,  that  is  plain  enough." 

"  You  ought  to  have  consulted  us,"  said  Kate,  not 
the  less  firmly  because  her  advice,  she  knew,  would 
have  been  of  no  earthly  value.  "  You  have  a  power- 
of-attorney  to  sign  for  us,  but  it  was  really  for  rou 
tine  matters,  so  that  the  property  might  act  as  a 
whole.  In  a  great  matter  like  this,  I  think  we 
should  have  known  about  it  first." 

"But  you  don't  know  anything  about  it  now,  even 
when  I  have  told  you  !  "  Mrs.  Minster  pointed  out, 
not  without  justification  for  her  triumphant  tone. 
"  It  is  perfectly  useless  for  us  women  to  try  and  un 
derstand  these  things.  Our  only  safety  is  in  being 
advised  by  men  who  do  know,  and  in  whom  we  have 
perfect  confidence." 

"  But  Mr.  Boyce  is  a  very  young  man,  and  you 
scarcely  know  him,"  objected  Ethel. 

"  He  was  strongly  recommended  to  me  by  Judge 
Wendover,"  replied  the  mother. 

"  And  pray  who  recommended  Judge  Wendover?  " 
asked,  Kate,  with  latent  sarcasm. 


Reuben  s  Momentous  First   Visit.  263 

"  Why,  he  was  born  in  the  same  town  with  me  !  " 
said  Mrs.  Minster,  as  if  no  answer  could  be  more 
sufficient.  "  My  grandfather  Douw  Mauverensen's 
sister  married  a  Wendover." 

"  But  about  the  bonds,"  pursued  the  eldest 
daughter.  "  What  amount  of  money  do  they  repre 
sent  ?  " 

"  Four  hundred  thousand  dollars." 

The  girls  opened  their  eyes  at  this,  and  their 
mother  hastened  to  add  :  "  But  it  really  isn't  very 
important,  when  you  come  to  look  at  it.  It  is  only 
what  Judge  Wendover  calls  making  one  hand  wash 
the  other.  The  money  raised  on  the  bonds  will  put 
the  Thessaly  Company  on  its  feet,  and  so  then  that 
will  pay  dividends,  and  so  we  will  get  back  the  in 
terest,  and  more  too.  The  bonds  we  can  buy  back 
whenever  we  choose.  /  managed  that,  because 
when  Judge  Wendover  said  the  bonds  would  be 
perfectly  good,  I  said,  '  If  they  are  so  good,  why 
don't  you  take  them  yourself?'  And  he  seemed 
struck  with  that  and  said  he  would.  They  didn't 
get  much  the  best  of  me  there  !  " 

Somehow  this  did  not  seem  very  clear  to  Kate. 
"If  he  had  the  money  to  take  the  bonds,  what  was 
the  need  of  any  bonds  at  all?  "  she  asked.  "  Why 
didn't  he  buy  this  machinery  himself?  " 

"  It  wouldn't  have  been  regular  ;  there  was  some 
legal  obstacle  in  the  way,"  the  mother  replied. 
"  He  explained  it  to  me,  but  I  didn't  quite  catch  it. 
At  all  events,  there  had  to  be  bonds.  Even  he 
couldn't  see  any  way  out  of  that." 


264  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Well,  I  hope  it  is  all  right,"  said  Kate,  and  the 
conversation  lapsed. 

But  upon  reflection,  in  her  own  room,  the  matter 
seemed  less  and  less  all  right,  and  finally,  after  a 
long  and  not  very  helpful  consultation  with  her  sis 
ter,  Kate  suddenly  thought  of  Reuben  Tracy.  A 
second  later  she  had  fully  decided  to  ask  his  advice, 
and  swift  upon  this  rose  the  resolve  to  summon  him 
immediately. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  perfumed  note  came  to  be 
sent. 

Reuben  took  the  seat  in  the  drawing-room  of  the 
Minsters  indicated  by  the  servant  who  had  admitted 
him,  and  it  did  not  occur  to  this  member  of  the  firm 
of  Tracy  &  Boyce  to  walk  about  and  look  at  the 
pictures,  much  less  to  wonder  how  many  of  them 
were  of  young  men. 

Even  in  this  dull  light  he  could  recognize,  on  the 
opposite  wall,  a  boyhood  portrait  of  the  Stephen 
Minster,  Junior,  whose  early  death  had  dashed  so 
many  hopes,  and  pointed  so  many  morals  to  the 
profit  of  godly  villagers.  He  thought  about  this 
worthless,  brief  career,  as  his  eyes  rested  on  the 
bright,  boyish  face  of  the  portrait,  with  the  clear 
dark  eyes  and  the  fresh-tinted  cheeks,  and  his  seri 
ous  mind  filled  itself  with  protests  against  the  con 
ditions  which  had  made  of  this  heir  to  millions  a 
rake  and  a  fool.  There  was  no  visible  reason  why 
Stephen  Minster's  son  should  not  have  been  clever 
and  strong,  a  fit  master  of  the  great  part  created 


Reuben's  Momentous  First   Visit.  265 

for  him  by  his  father.  There  must  be  some  blight, 
some  mysterious  curse  upon  hereditary  riches  here 
in  America,  thought  Reuben,  for  all  at  once  he 
found  himself  persuaded  that  this  was  the  rule  with 
most  rich  men's  sons.  Therein  lay  a  terrible  menace 
to  the  Republic,  he  said  to  himself.  Vague  musings 
upon  the  possibility  of  remedying  this  were  begin 
ning  to  float  in  his  brain — the  man  could  never  con 
template  injustices,  great  or  small,  without  longing 
to  set  them  right — when  the  door  opened  and  the 
tall  young  elder  daughter  of  the  Minsters  entered. 

Reuben  rose  and  felt  himself  making  some  such 
obeisance  before  her  in  spirit  as  one  lays  at  the  feet 
of  a  queen.  What  he  did  in  reality  or  what  he  said, 
left  no  record  on  his  memory. 

He  had  been  seated  again  for  some  minutes,  and 
had  listened  with  the  professional  side  of  his  mind 
to  most  of  what  story  she  had  to  tell,  before  he 
regained  control  of  his  perceptions  and  began  to 
realize  that  the  most  beautiful  woman  he  had  ever 
seen  was  confiding  to  him  her  anxieties,  as  a  friend 
even  more  than  as  a  lawyer.  The  situation  was  so 
wonderful  that  it  needed  all  the  control  he  had  over 
his  faculties  to  grasp  and  hold  it.  Always  after 
ward  he  thought  of  the  moment  in  which  his  con 
fusion  of  mind  vanished,  and  he,  sitting  on  the  sofa 
facing  her  chair,  was  able  to  lean  back  a  little  and 
talk  as  if  he  had  known  her  a  long  time,  as  the  turn 
ing-point  in  his  whole  life. 

What  it  was  in  her  power  to  tell  him  about  the 
transaction  which  had  frightened  her  did  not  convey 


266  The  Lawton  Girl. 

a  very  clear  idea  to  his  mind.  A  mortgage  of  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been  placed  upon 
the  Minsters'  property  to  meet  the  alleged  neces 
sities  of  a  company  in  which  they  were  large 
owners,  and  their  own  furnaces  had  been  put  under 
the  control  of  a  big  trust  formed  by  other  manu 
facturers,  presumably  for  the  benefit  of  all  its  mem 
bers.  This  was  what  he  made  out  of  her  story. 

"  On  their  face,"  he  said,  "  these  things  seem  reg 
ular  enough.  The  doubtful  point,  of  course,  would 
be  whether,  in  both  transactions,  your  interests  and 
those  of  your  family  were  perfectly  safe-guarded. 
This  is  something  I  can  form  no  opinion  about. 
But  Mr.  Boyce  must  have  looked  out  for  that  and 
seen  that  you  got  '  value  received.'  ' 

"Ah,  Mr.  Boyce!  That  is  just  the  question," 
Kate  answered,  swiftly.  "  Has  he  looked  out  for 
it?" 

"  Curiously  enough  he  has  never  spoken  with  me, 
even  indirectly,  about  having  taken  charge  of  your 
mother's  business,"  replied  Reuben,  slowly.  "  But 
he  is  a  competent  man,  with  a  considerable  talent 
for  detail,  and  a  good  knowledge  of  business,  as  well 
as  of  legal  forms.  I  should  say  you  might  be  per 
fectly  easy  about  his  capacity  to  guard  your  inter 
ests  ;  oh,  yes,  entirely  easy." 

"  It  isn't  his  capacity  that  I  was  thinking  about," 
said  the  young  woman,  hesitatingly.  "  I  wanted  to 
ask  you  about  him  himself — about  the  man." 

Reuben  smiled  in  an  involuntary  effort  to  conceal 
his  uneasiness.  "They  say  that  no  man  is  a  hero 


Reuben  s  Momentous  First  Visit.  267 

to  his  valet,  you  know/'  he  made  answer.  "  In  the 
same  way  business  men  ought  not  to  be  cross- 
examined  on  the  opinions  which  the  community  at 
large  may  have  concerning  their  partners.  Boyce 
and  I  occupy,  in  a  remote  kind  of  way,  the  relations 
of  husband  and  wife.  We  maintain  a  public  atti 
tude  toward  each  other  of  great  respect  and  admi 
ration,  and  are  bound  to  do  so  by  the  same  rules 
which  govern  the  heads  of  a  family.  And  we 
mustn't  talk  about  each  other.  You  never  would 
go  to  one  of  a  married  couple  for  an  opinion  about 
the  other.  If  the  opinion  were  all  praise,  you  would 
set  it  down  to  prejudice  ;  if  it  were  censure,  the  fact 
of  its  source  would  shock  you.  Oh,  no,  partners 
mustn't  discuss  each  other.  That  would  be  letting 
all  the  bars  down  with  a  vengeance." 

He  had  said  all  this  with  an  effort  at  lightness,  and 
ended,  as  he  had  begun,  with  a  smile.  Kate,  looking 
intently  into  his  face,  did  not  smile  in  response.  He 
thought  her  expression  was  one  of  disappointment. 

"  Perhaps  I  was  wrong  to  ask  you,"  she  answered, 
after  a  little  pause,  and  in  a  colder  tone.  "  You  men 
do  stand  by  each  other  so  splendidly.  It  is  the 
secret  of  your  strength.  It  is  why  your  sex  pos 
sesses  the  earth,  and  the  fulness  thereof." 

It  was  easier  for  Reuben  to  smile  naturally  this 
time.  "  But  I  illustrated  my  position  by  an  example 
of  a  still  finer  reticence,"  he  said ;  "  the  finest  one 
can  imagine — that  of  husband  and  wife." 

11  You  are  not  married,  I  believe,  Mr.  Tracy,"  was 
her  comment,  and  its  edge  was  apparent. 


268  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  No,"  he  said,  and  stopped  short.  No  other 
words  came  to  his  tongue,  and  his  thoughts  seemed 
to  have  gone  away  into  somebody  else's  mind,  leav 
ing  only  a  formless  blank,  over  which  hung,  like  a 
canopy  of  cloud,  a  depressing  uneasiness  lest  his 
visit  should  not,  after  all,  turn  out  a  success. 

"  Then  you  think  I  have  needlessly  worried  my 
self,"  she  was  saying  when  he  came  back  into  mental 
life  again. 

"  Not  altogether  that,  either,"  he  replied,  moving 
in  his  seat,  and  sitting  upright  like  a  man  who  has 
shaken  himself  out  of  a  disposition  to  doze.  "  So 
far  as  you  have  described  them,  the  transactions 
may  easily  be  all  right.  Everything  depends  upon 
details  which  you  cannot  give.  The  sum  seems  a 
large  one  to  raise  for  the  purchase  of  machinery,  and 
it  might  be  well  to  inquire  into  the  exact  nature  and 
validity  of  the  purchase.  As  for  the  terms  upon 
which  you  lend  the  money  to  the  company,  of 
course  Mr.  Boyce  has  secured  those.  In  the  matter 
of  the  trust,  I  cannot  speak  at  all.  The  idea  is 
hateful  to  me,  personally.  All  such  combinations 
excite  my  anger.  But  as  a  business  operation  it  may 
improve  your  property  ;  always  assuming  that  you 
are  capably  and  fairly  represented  in  the  control  of 
the  trust.  I  suppose  Mr.  Boyce  has  attended  to 
that." 

"But  don't  you  see,"  broke  in  the  girl,  "it  is  all 
Mr.  Boyce  !  It  is  to  be  assumed  that  he  will  do 
this,  to  be  taken  for  granted  he  will  do  that,  to  be 
hoped  that  he  has  done  the  other.  That  is  what  I 


Reuben  s  Momentous  First   Visit.  269 

am  anxious  about.  Has  he  done  these  things? 
Will  he  do  them  ?  " 

"  And  that,  of  course,  is  what  I  cannot  tell  you," 
said  Reuben.  "  How  can  I  know?" 

"But  you  can  find  out." 

The  lawyer  knitted  his  ordinarily  placid  brows  for 
a  moment  in  thought.  Then  he  slowly  shook  his 
head.  "  I  am  afraid  not,"  he  said,  slowly.  "  I  should 
be  very  angry  if  the  railroad  people,  for  example,  set 
him  to  examining  what  I  had  done  for  them  ;  angry 
with  him,  especially,  for  accepting  such  a  commis 
sion." 

"  I  am  sorry,  Mr.  Tracy,  if  I  seem  to  have  pro 
posed  anything  dishonorable  to  you,"  Miss  Kate 
responded,  with  added  formality  in  voice  and  man 
ner.  "  I  did  not  mean  to." 

"How  could  I  imagine  such  a  thing?  "  said  Reu 
ben,  more  readily  than  was  his  wont.  "  I  only  sought 
to  make  a  peculiar  situation  clear  to  you,  who  are 
not  familiar  with  such  things.  If  I  asked  him  ques 
tions,  or  meddled  in  the  matter  at  all,  he  would 
resent  it ;  and  by  usage  he  would  be  justified  in  re 
senting  it.  That  is  how  it  stands." 

"  Then  you  cannot  help  me,  after  all !  "  She  spoke 
despondingly  now,  with  the  low,  rich  vibration  in 
her  tone  which  Reuben  had  dwelt  so  often  on 
in  memory  since  he  first  heard  it.  "  And  I  had 
counted  so  much  upon  your  aid,"  she  added,  with  a 
sigh. 

"  I  would  do  a  great  deal  to  be  of  use  to  you,"  the 
young  man  said,  earnestly,  and  looked  her  in  the  face 


270  The  Lawton  Girl. 

with  calm  frankness  ;  "  a  great  deal,  Miss  Minster, 
but—" 

"  Yes,  but  that  'but '  means  everything.  I  repeat, 
in  this  situation  you  can  do  nothing." 

"  I  cannot  take  a  brief  against  my  partner." 

"  I  should  not  suggest  that  again,  Mr.  Tracy," 
she  interposed.  "  I  can  see  that  I  was  wrong  there, 
and  you  were  right." 

"  Don't  put  it  in  that  way.  There  was  no  ques 
tion  of  wrong  or  right.  I  merely  pointed  out  a  con 
dition  of  business  relations  which  had  not  occurred 
to  you." 

"  And  there  is  no  other  way?  " 

Another  way  had  dawned  on  Reuben's  mind,  but 
it  was  so  bold  and  precipitous  that  he  hesitated  to 
consider  it  seriously  at  first.  When  it  did  take  form 
and  force  itself  upon  him,  he  said,  half  quaking  at 
his  own  audacity : 

"  No  other  way — while — he  remains  my  partner." 

Bright  women  discover  many  obscure  things  by 
the  use  of  that  marvellous  faculty  we  call  intuition, 
but  they  have  by  no  means  reduced  its  employment 
to  an  exact  science.  Sometimes  their  failure  to  dis 
cover  more  obvious  things  is  equally  remarkable. 
At  this  moment,  for  example,  Kate's  feminine  wits 
did  not  in  the  least  help  her  to  read  the  mind  of 
the  man  before  her,  or  the  meaning  in  his  words. 
In  truth,  they  misled  her,  for  she  heard  only  an 
obstinate  reiteration  of  an  unpleasant  statement, 
and  set  her  teeth  together  with  impatience  as  she 
heard  it. 


Reubens  Momentous  First   Visit.  271 

And  had  she  even  kept  these  teeth  tight  clinched, 
and  said  nothing,  the  man  might  have  gone  on  in 
self-explanation,  and  made  clear  to  her  her  mistake. 
But  her  vexation  was  too  imperative  for  silence. 

"  I  am  very  sorry  to  have  taken  up  your  time,  Mr. 
Tracy,"  she  said,  stiffly,  and  rose  from  her  chair.  "  I 
am  so  little  informed  about  these  matters,  I  really 
imagined  you  could  help  us.  Pray  forgive  me." 

If  Reuben  could  have  realized,  as  he  stood  in 
momentary  embarrassment,  that  this  beautiful  lady 
before  him  had  fairly  bitten  her  tongue  to  restrain 
it  from  adding  that  he  might  treat  this  as  a  profes 
sional  call,  or  in  some  other  way  suggesting  that  he 
would  be  paid  for  his  time,  he  might  have  been  more 
embarrassed  still,  and  angry  as  well. 

But  it  did  not  occur  to  him  to  feel  annoyance — at 
least,  toward  her.  He  really  was  sorry  that  no  way 
of  being  of  help  to  her  seemed  immediately  avail 
able,  and  he  thought  of  this  more  in  fact  than  he  did 
of  the  personal  aspects  of  his  failure  to  justify  her 
invitation.  He  noted  that  the  faint  perfume  which 
her  dress  exhaled  as  she  rose  was  identical  with  that 
of  the  letter  of  invitation,  and  thought  to  himself 
that  he  would  preserve  that  letter,  and  then  that  it 
would  not  be  quite  warranted  by  the  circumstances, 
and  so  found  himself  standing  silent  before  her, 
sorely  reluctant  to  go  away,  and  conscious  that  there 
must  be  a  sympathetic  light  in  his  eyes  which  hers 
did  not  reflect. 

"  I  am  truly  grieved  if  you  are  disappointed,"  he 
managed  to  say  at  last. 


272  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Oh,  it  is  nothing,  Mr.  Tracy,"  she  said,  politely, 
and  moved  toward  the  door.  "  It  was  my  ignorance 
of  business  rules.  I  am  so  sorry  to  have  troubled 
you." 

Reuben  followed  her  through  the  hall  to  the  outer 
door,"  wondering  if  she  would  offer  to  shake  hands 
with  him,  and  putting  both  his  stick  and  hat  in  his 
left  hand  to  free  the  other  in  case  she  did. 

On  the  doorstep  she  did  give  him  her  hand,  and  in 
that  moment,  ruled  by  a  flash  of  impulse,  he  heard 
himself  saying  to  her : 

"  If  anything  happens,  if  you  learn  anything, 
if  you  need  me,  you  wont  fail  to  call  me,  will 
you?" 

Then  the  door  closed,  and  as  Reuben  walked  away 
he  did  not  seem  able  to  recall  whether  she  had 
answered  his  appeal  or  not.  In  sober  fact,  it  had 
scarcely  sounded  like  his  appeal  at  all.  The  voice 
was  certainly  one  which  had  never  been  heard  in 
the  law-office  down  on  Main  Street  or  in  the  trial- 
chamber  of  the  Dearborn  County  Court-House  over 
the  way.  It  had  sounded  more  like  the  voice  of  an 
actor  in  the  theatre — like  a  Romeo  murmuring  up  to 
the  sweet  girl  in  the  balcony. 

Reuben  walked  straight  to  his  office,  and  straight 
through  to  the  little  inner  apartment  appropriated 
to  his  private  uses.  There  were  some  people  in  the 
large  room  talking  with  his  partner,  but  he  scarcely 
observed  their  presence  as  he  passed.  He  unlocked 
a  tiny  drawer  in  the  top  of  his  desk,  cleared  out  its 
contents  brusquely,  dusted  the  inside  with  his  hand- 


Reuben  s  Momentous  First   Visit.  273 

kerchief,  and  then  placed  within  it  a  perfumed  note 
which  he  took  from  his  pocket. 

When  he  had  turned  the  key  upon  this  souvenir, 
he  drew  a  long  breath,  lighted  a  cigar,  and  sat  down, 
with  his  feet  on  the  table  and  his  thoughts  among 

the  stars, 

18 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

"  SAY   THAT   THERE   IS    NO   ANSWER.'" 

REUBEN  allowed  his  mind  to  drift  at  will  in  this 
novel,  enchanted  channel  for  a  long  time,  until  the 
clients  outside  had  taken  their  departure,  and  his 
cigar  had  burned  out,  and  his  partner  had  sauntered 
in  to  mark  by  some  casual  talk  the  fact  that  the  day 
was  done. 

What  this  mind  shaped  into  dreams  and  desires 
and  pictures  in  its  musings,  it  would  not  be  an  easy 
matter  to  detail.  The  sum  of  the  revery — or,  rather, 
the  central  goal  up  to  which  every  differing  train  of 
thought  somehow  managed  to  lead  him — was  that 
Kate  Minster  was  the  most  beautiful,  the  cleverest, 
the  dearest,  the  loveliest,  the  most  to  be  adored  and 
longed  for,  of  all  mortal  women. 

If  he  did  not  say  to  himself,  in  so  many  words, 
"  I  love  her,"  it  was  because  the  phraseology  was 
unfamiliar  to  him.  That  eternal  triplet  of  tender 
verb  and  soulful  pronouns,  which  sings  itself  in  our 
more  accustomed  hearts  to  music  set  by  the  stress 
of  our  present  senses — now  the  gay  carol  of  spring 
time,  sure  and  confident  ;  now  the  soft  twilight  song, 
wherein  the  very  weariness  of  bliss  sighs  forth  a 
blessing  ;  now  the  vibrant,  wooing  ballad  of  a  graver 
passion,  with  tears  close  underlying  rapture  ;  now, 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer."  275 

alas !  the  dirge  of  hopeless  loss,  with  wailing  chords 
which  overwhelm  like  curses,  smitten  upon  heart 
strings  strained  to  the  breaking — these  three  little 
words  did  not  occur  to  him.  But  no  lover  self-con 
fessed  could  have  dreamed  more  deliciously. 

He  had  spoken  with  her  twice  now — once  when 
she  was  wrapped  in  furs  and  wore  a  bonnet,  and 
once  in  her  own  house,  where  she  was  dressed  in  a 
creamy  white  gown,  with  a  cord  and  tassels  about 
the  waist.  These  details  were  tangible  possessions 
in  the  treasure-house  of  his  memory.  The  first  time 
she  had  charmed  and  gratified  his  vague  notions  of 
what  a  beautiful  and  generous  woman  should  be  ; 
he  had  been  unspeakably  pleased  by  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  she  threw  herself  into  the  plan  for  help 
ing  the  poor  work-girls  of  the  town.  On  this  sec 
ond  occasion  she  had  been  concerned  only  about  the 
safety  of  her  own  money,  and  that  of  her  family, 
and  yet  his  liking  for  her  had  flared  up  into  some 
thing  very  like  a  consuming  flame.  If  there  was  a 
paradox  here,  the  lawyer  did  not  see  it. 

There  floated  across  his  mind  now  and  again  stray 
black  motes  of  recollection  that  she  had  not  seemed 
altogether  pleased  with  him  on  this  later  occasion, 
but  they  passed  away  without  staining  the  bright 
colors  of  his  meditation.  It  did  not  matter  what  she 
had  thought  or  said.  The  fact  of  his  having  been 
there  with  her,  the  existence  of  that  little  perfumed 
letter  tenderly  locked  up  in  the  desk  before  him,  the 
breathing,  smiling,  dark-eyed  picture  of  her  which 
glowed  in  his  brain —these  were  enough. 


276  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Once  before — once  only  in  his  life — the  person 
ality  of  a  woman  had  seized  command  of  his 
thoughts.  Years  ago,  when  he  was  still  the  school 
teacher  at  the  Burfield,  he  had  felt  himself  in  love 
with  Annie  Fairchild,  surely  the  sweetest  flower  that 
all  the  farm-lands  of  Dearborn  had  ever  produced. 
He  had  come  very  near  revealing  his  heart — doubt 
less  the  girl  did  know  well  enough  of  his  devotion — 
but  she  was  in  love  with  her  cousin  Seth,  and  Reuben 
had  come  to  realize  this,  and  so  had  never  spoken, 
but  had  gone  away  to  New  York  instead. 

He  could  remember  that  for  a  time  he  was  un 
happy,  and  even  so  late  as  last  autumn,  after  nearly 
four  years  had  gone  by,  the  mere  thought  that  she 
commended  her  prote"g6e,  Jessica  Lawton, to  his  kind 
ness,  had  thrilled  him  with  something  of  the  old 
feeling.  But  now  she  seemed  all  at  once  to  have 
faded  away  into  indistinct  remoteness,  like  the  figure 
of  some  little  girl  he  had  known  in  his  boyhood  and 
had  never  seen  since. 

Curiously  enough,  the  apparition  of  Jessica  Law- 
ton  rose  and  took  form  in  his  thoughts,  as  that  of 
Annie  Fairchild  passed  into  the  shadows  of  long  ago. 
She,  at  least,  was  not  a  schoolgirl  any  more,  but  a 
full-grown  woman.  He  could  remember  that  the 
glance  in  her  eyes  when  she  looked  at  him  was 
maturely  grave  and  searching.  She  had  seemed  very 
grateful  to  him  for  calling  upon  her,  and  he  liked  to 
recall  the  delightful  expression  of  surprised  satisfac 
tion  which  lighted  up  her  face  when  she  found  that 
both  Miss  Minster  and  he  would  help  her. 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer"  277 

Miss  Minster  and  himself !  They  two  were  to 
work  together  to  further  and  fulfil  this  plan  of  Jes 
sica's  !  Oh,  the  charm  of  the  thought  ! 

Now  he  came  to  think  of  it,  the  young  lady  had 
never  said  a  word  to-day  about  Jessica  and  the  plan 
— and,  oddly  enough,  too,  he  had  never  once  re 
membered  it  either.  But  then  Miss  Minster  had 
other  matters  on  her  mind.  She  was  frightened 
about  the  mortgages  and  the  trust,  and  anxious  to 
have  his  help  to  set  her  fears  at  rest. 

Reuben  began  to  wonder  once  more  what  there 
was  really  in  those  fears.  As  he  pondered  on  this, 
all  the  latent  distrust  of  his  partner  which  had  been 
growing  up  for  weeks  in  his  mind  suddenly  swelled 
into  a  great  dislike.  There  came  to  him,  all  at  once, 
the  recollection  of  those  mysterious  and  sinister 
words  he  had  overheard  exchanged  between  his 
partner  and  Tenney,  and  it  dawned  upon  his  slow- 
working  consciousness  that  that  strange  talk  about 
"  a  game  in  his  own  hands  "  had  never  been  ex 
plained  by  events.  Then,  in  an  instant,  he  realized 
instinctively  that  here  was  the  game. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Horace  strolled  into 
the  presence  of  his  partner.  He  had  his  hands  in 
his  trousers  pockets,  and  a  cigar  between  his  teeth. 
This  latter  he  now  proceeded  to  light. 

"  Ferguson  has  been  here  again,"  he  said,  non 
chalantly,  "  and  brought  his  brother  with  him.  He 
can't  make  up  his  mind  whether  to  appeal  the 
case  or  not.  He'd  like  to  try  it,  but  the  expense 
scares  him.  I  told  him  at  last  that  I  was  tired  of 


278  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

hearing  about  the  thing,  and  didn't  give  a  damn 
what  he  did,  as  long  as  he  only  shut  up  and  gave 
me  a  rest." 

Reuben  did  not  feel  interested  in  the  Fergusons. 
He  looked  his  partner  keenly,  almost  sternly,  in  the 
eye,  and  said  : 

"  You  have  never  mentioned  to  me  that  Mrs. 
Minster  had  put  her  business  in  your  hands." 

Horace  flushed  a  little,  and  returned  the  other's 
gaze  with  one  equally  truculent. 

"  It  didn't  seem  to  be  necessary,"  he  replied,  curtly. 
"  It  is  private  business." 

"  Nothing  was  said  about  your  having  private 
business  when  the  firm  was  established,"  commented 
Reuben. 

"  That  may  be,"  retorted  Horace.  "  But  you  have 
your  railroad  affairs — a  purely  personal  matter. 
Why  shouldn't  I  have  an  equal  right?" 

"  I  don't  say  you  haven't.  What  I  am  thinking 
of  is  your  secrecy  in  the  matter.  I  hate  to  have 
people  act  in  that  way,  as  if  I  couldn't  be  trusted." 

Horace  had  never  heard  Reuben  speak  in  this  tone 
before.  The  whole  Minster  business  had  perplexed 
and  harassed  him  into  a  state  of  nervous  irritability 
these  last  few  weeks,  and  it  was  easy  for  him  now  to 
snap  at  provocation. 

"  At  least  /  may  be  trusted  to  mind  my  own 
affairs,"  he  said,  with  cutting  niceness  of  enunciation 
and  a  lowering  scowl  of  the  brows. 

There  came  a  little  pause,  for  Reuben  saw  himself 
face  to  face  with  a  quarrel,  and  shrank  from  precipi- 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer"  279 

tating  it  needlessly.  Perhaps  the  rupture  would  be 
necessary,  but  he  would  do  nothing  to  hasten  it  out 
of  mere  ill-temper. 

"  That  isn't  the  point,"  he  said  at  last,  looking  up 
with  more  calmness  into  the  other's  face.  "  I  simply 
commented  on  your  having  taken  such  pains  to  keep 
the  whole  thing  from  me.  Why  on  earth  should  you 
have  thought  that  essential  ?  " 

Horace  answered  with  a  question.  "  Who  told  you 
about  it  ?  "  he  asked,  in  a  surly  tone. 

"  Old  'Squire  Gedney  mentioned  it  first.  Others 
have  spoken  of  it  since." 

"  Well,  what  am  I  to  understand  ?  Do  you  intend 
to  object  to  my  keeping  the  business?  I  may  tell 
you  that  it  was  by  the  special  request  of  my  clients 
that  I  undertook  it  alone,  and,  as  they  laid  so  much 
stress  on  that,  it  seemed  to  me  best  not  to  speak  of 
it  at  all  to  you." 

"Why?" 

"  To  be  frank,"  said  Horace,  with  a  cold  gleam  in 
his  eye,  "  I  didn't  imagine  that  it  would  be  particu 
larly  pleasant  to  you  to  learn  that  the  Minster  ladies 
desired  not  to  have  you  associated  with  their  affairs. 
It  seemed  one  of  those  things  best  left  unsaid. 
However,  you  have  it  now." 

Reuben  felt  the  disagreeable  intention  of  his  part 
ner's  words  even  more  than  he  did  their  bearing 
upon  the  dreams  from  which  he  had  been  awakened. 
He  had  by  this  time  perfectly  made  up  his  mind 
about  Horace,  and  realized  that  a  break-up  was  in 
evitable.  The  conviction  that  this  young  man  was 


280  The  Lawton  Girl. 

dishonest  carried  with  it,  however,  the  suggestion 
that  it  would  be  wise  to  probe  him  and  try  to  learn 
what  he  was  at. 

"I  wish  you  would  sit  down  a  minute  or  two,"  he 
said.  "  I  want  to  talk  to  you." 

Horace  took  a  chair,  and  turned  the  cigar  rest' 
lessly  around  in  his  teeth.  He  was  conscious  that 
his  nerves  were  not  quite  what  they  should  be. 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  pursued  Reuben — "  I'm  speak 
ing  as  an  older  lawyer  than  you,  and  an  older  man — 
it  seems  to  me  that  to  put  a  four  hundred  thousand 
dollar  mortgage  on  the  Minster  property  is  a  pretty 
big  undertaking  for  a  young  man  to  go  into  on  his 
own  hook,  without  consulting  anybody.  Don't  mis 
understand  me.  Don't  think  I  wish  to  meddle. 
Only  it  seems  to  me,  if  I  had  been  in  your  place,  I 
should  have  moved  very  cautiously  and  taken  ad 
vice." 

"  I  did  take  advice,"  said  Horace.  The  discovery 
that  Reuben  knew  of  this  mortgage  rilled  him  with 
uneasiness. 

"  Of  whom  ?  Schuyler  Tenney  ?  "  asked  Reuben, 
speaking  calmly  enough,  but  watching  with  all  his 
eyes. 

The  chance  shot  went  straight  to  the  mark. 
Horace  visibly  flushed,  and  then  turned  pale. 

"  I  decline  to  be  catechised  in  this  way,"  he  said, 
nervously  shifting  his  position  on  the  chair,  and  then 
suddenly  rising.  "  Gedney  is  a  damned,  meddle 
some,  drunken  old  fool,"  he  added,  with  irrelevant 
vehemence. 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer."  281 

"Yes,  I'm  afraid  '  Cal '  does  drink  too  much," 
answered  Reuben,  with  perfect  amiability  of  tone. 
He  evinced  no  desire  to  continue  the  conversation, 
and  Horace,  after  standing  for  an  uncertain  moment 
or  two  in  the  doorway,  went  out  and  put  on  his 
overcoat.  Then  he  came  back  again. 

"  Am  I  to  take  it  that  you  object  to  my  continu 
ing  to  act  as  attorney  for  these  ladies?"  he  asked 
from  the  threshold  of  the  outer  room,  his  voice  shak 
ing  a  little  in  spite  of  itself. 

"  I  don't  think  I  have  said  that,"  replied  Reuben. 

"No,  you  haven't  said  it,"  commented  the  other. 

"  To  tell  the  truth,  I  haven't  quite  cleared  up  in 
my  own  mind  just  what  I  do  object  to,  or  how  much," 
said  Reuben,  relighting  his  cigar,  and  contemplating 
his  boots  crossed  on  the  desk-top.  "  We'll  talk  of  this 
again." 

"  As  you  like,"  muttered  young  Mr.  Boyce. 
Then  he  turned,  and  went  away  without  saying 
good-night.  The  outer  door  slammed  behind  him. 

Twilight  began  to  close  in  upon  the  winter's  day, 
but  Reuben  still  sat  in  meditation.  He  had  parted 
with  his  colleague  in  anger,  and  it  was  evident 
enough  that  the  office  family  was  to  be  broken  up  ; 
but  he  gave  scarcely  a  thought  to  these  things.  His 
mind,  in  fact,  seemed  by  preference  to  dwell  chiefly 
upon  the  large  twisted  silken  cord  which  girdled  the 
waist  of  that  wonderful  young  woman,  and  the  tas- 
selled  ends  of  which  hung  against  the  white  front  of 
her  gown  like  the  beads  of  a  nun.  Many  variant 
thoughts  about  her  affairs,  about  her  future,  rose  in 


282  The  Lawton  Girl. 

his  mind  and  pleasantly  excited  it,  but  they  all  in 
turn  merged  vaguely  into  fancies  circling  around 
that  glossy  rope  and  weaving  themselves  into  its 
strands. 

It  was  very  near  tea-time,  and  darkness  had  estab 
lished  itself  for  the  night  in  the  offices,  before  Reu 
ben's  vagrant  musings  prompted  him  to  action.  Upon 
the  spur  of  the  moment,  he  all  at  once  put  down  his 
feet,  lighted  the  gas  over  his  desk,  took  out  the  per 
fumed  letter  from  its  consecrated  resting-place,  and 
began  hurriedly  to  write  a  reply  to  it.  He  had 
suddenly  realized  that  the  memorable  interview  that 
afternoon  had  been,  from  her  point  of  view,  incon 
clusive. 

Five  times  he  worked  his  way  down  nearly  to  the 
bottom  of  the  page,  and  then  tore  up  the  sheet.  At 
first  he  was  too  expansive  ;  then  the  contrasted 
fault  of  over-reticence  jarred  upon  him.  At  last  he 
constructed  this  letter,  which  obtained  a  reluctant 
approval  from  his  critical  sense,  though  it  seemed 
to  his  heart  a  pitifully  gagged  and  blindfolded  mis 
sive  : 

DEAR  Miss  MINSTER  :  Unfortunately,  I  was  unable  this  after 
noon  to  see  my  way  to  helping  you  upon  the  lines  which  you  sug 
gested.  I  am  afraid  that  this  disappointed  you. 

Matters  have  assumed  a  somewhat  different  aspect  since  our  talk. 
By  the  time  that  you  have  mastered  the  details  of  what  you  had  on 
your  mind,  I  may  be  in  a  position  to  consult  with  you  freely  upon 
the  whole  subject. 

I  want  you  to  believe  that  I  am  very  anxious  to  be  of  assistance  to 
you,  in  this  as  in  all  other  things. 

Faithfully  yours, 

REUBEN  TRACY. 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer."  283 

Reuben  locked  up  the  keepsake  note  again,  fondly 
entertaining  the  idea  as  he  did  so  that  soon  there 
might  be  others  to  bear  it  company.  Then  he  closed 
the  offices,  went  down  upon  the  street,  and  told  the 
first  idle  boy  he  met  that  he  could  earn  fifty  cents  by 
carrying  a  letter  at  once  to  the  home  of  the  Minsters. 
The  money  would  be  his  when  he  returned  to  the 
Dearborn  House. 

"  Will  there  be  any  answer  ?  "  asked  the  boy. 

This  opened  up  a  new  idea  to  the  lawyer.  "  You 
might  wait  and  see,"  he  said. 

But  the  messenger  came  back  in  a  depressingly 
short  space  of  time,  with  the  word  that  no  answer 
was  required. 

He  had  hurried  both  ways  with  a  stern  concentra 
tion  of  purpose,  and  now  he  dashed  off  once  more 
in  an  even  more  strenuous  race  against  time,  with 
the  half-dollar  clutched  securely  inside  his  mitten. 
The  Great  Occidental  Minstrel  Combination  was  in 
town,  and  the  boy  leaped  over  snowbanks,  and  slid 
furiously  across  slippery  places,  in  the  earnestness  of 
his  intention  not  to  miss  one  single  joke. 

The  big  man  whom  he  left  went  wearily  up  the 
stairs  to  his  room,  and  walked  therein  for  aimless 
hours,  and  almost  scowled  as  he  shook  his  head  at 
the  waitress  who  came  up  to  remind  him  that  he 
had  had  no  supper. 

The  two  Minster  sisters  had  read  Reuben's  note 
together,  in  the  seclusion  of  their  own  sitting-room. 
They  had  previously  discussed  the  fact  of  his  refusal 


284  The  Lawton  Girl. 

to  assist  them — for  so  it  translated  itself  in  Kate's 
account  of  the  interview — and  had  viewed  it  with 
almost  displeasure. 

Ethel  was,  however,  disposed  to  relent  when  the 
letter  came. 

"  At  least  it  might  be  well  to  write  him  a  polite 
note,"  she  said,  "  thanking  him,  and  saying  that  cir 
cumstances  might  arise  under  which  you  would  be 
glad  to — to  avail  yourself,  and  so  on." 

"  I  don't  think  I  shall  write  at  all,"  Kate  replied, 
glancing  over  the  lawyer's  missive  again.  "  He  took 
no  interest  in  the  thing  whatever.  And  you  see  how 
even  now  he  infers  that '  the  lines  I  suggested  '  were 
dishonorable." 

"  I  didn't  see  that,  Kate." 

"  Here  it  is.  '  He  was  unable  to  see  his  way,'  and 
that  sort  of  thing.  And  he  said  himself  that  the 
business  all  seemed  regular  enough,  so  far  as  he 
could  see. — Say  that  there  is  no  answer,"  she  added 
to  the  maid  at  the  door. 

The  two  girls  sat  in  silence  for  a  moment  in  the 
soft,  cosey  light  between  the  fire-place  and  the  lace- 
shaded  lamp.  Then  Ethel  spoke  again  : 

"And  you  really  didn't  like  him,  Kate?  You 
know  you  were  so  enthusiastic  about  him,  that  day 
you  came  back  from  the  milliner's  shop.  I  never 
heard  you  have  so  much  to  say  about  any  other  man 
before." 

"That  was  different,"  mused  the  other.  Her 
voice  grew  even  less  kindly,  and  the  words  came 
swifter  as  she  went  on.  "  Then  it  was  a  question  of 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer"  285 

helping  the  Lawton  girl.  He  was  quite  excited 
about  that.  He  didn't  hum  and  haw,  and  talk  about 
'  the  lines  suggested  '  to  him,  then.  He  could  '  see 
his  way  '  very  clearly  indeed.  Oh,  yes,  with  entire 
clearness  !  And  I  was  childish  enough  to  be  taken 
in  by  it  all.  I  am  vexed  with  myself  when  I  think 
of  it." 

"  Are  you  sure  you  are  being  quite  fair,  Kate?" 
pale  Ethel  asked,  putting  her  hand  caressingly  on 
the  sister's  knee.  "  Read  the  letter  again,  dear.  He 
says  he  wants  to  help  you  ;  and  he  hints,  too,  that 
something  has  happened,  or  is  going  to  happen,  to 
make  him  free  in  the  matter.  How  can  we  tell  what 
that  something  is,  or  how  he  felt  himself  bound  be 
fore  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  we  oughtn't  to  leap  at 
the  idea  of  his  being  unfriendly.  I  am  sure  that 
you  believed  him  to  be  a  wholly  good  man  before. 
Why  assume  all  at  once  now  that  he  is  not,  just  be 
cause —  Men  don't  change  from  good  to  bad  like 
that." 

"  Ah,  but  was  he  good  before,  or  did  we  only  think 
so?" 

Ethel  went  on :  "  Surely,  he  knows  more  about 
business  than  we  do.  And  if  he  was  unable  to 
help  you,  it  must  have  been  for  some  real  rea 
son." 

"  That  is  it  !  I  should  like  to  be  helped  first,  and 
let  reasons  come  afterward."  The  girl's  dark  eyes 
flashed  with  an  imperious  light.  "  What  kind  of  a 
hero  is  it  who,  when  you  cry  for  assistance,  calmly 
says :  '  Upon  the  lines  you  suggest  I  do  not  see  my 


286  The  Lawton  Girl. 

way '  ?  It  is  high  time  the  books  about  chivalry 
were  burned,  if  that  is  the  modern  man." 

"  But  you  did  not  cry  to  a  hero  for  assistance. 
You  merely  asked  the  advice  of  a  lawyer  about  a 
mortgage — if  mamma  is  right  about  its  being  a  mort 
gage." 

"  It  is  the  same  thing,"  said  Kate,  pushing  the 
hassock  impatiently  with  her  foot.  "  Whether  the 
distressed  maiden  falls  into  the  water  or  into  debt, 
the  principle  is  precisely  the  same." 

"  He  couldn't  do  what  you  asked,  because  it 
would  be  unfair  to  his  partner.  Now,  isn't  that  it 
exactly?  And  wasn't  that  honorable?  Now,  be 
frank,  Kate." 

"  The  partner  would  have  gone  into  anything 
headlong,  asking  no  questions,  raising  no  objections, 
if  I  had  so  much  as  lifted  my  finger.  He  never 
would  have  given  his  partner  a  thought." 

Kate  confided  this  answer  to  the  firelight.  She 
was  conscious  of  a  desire  just  now  not  to  meet  her 
sister's  glance. 

"  And  you  like  the  man  without  scruples  better 
than  the  man  with  them  ?  " 

"  At  least,  he  is  more  interesting,"  the  elder  girl 
said,  still  with  her  eyes  on  the  burning  logs. 

Ethel  waited  a  little  for  some  additional  hint  as  to 
her  sister's  state  of  mind.  When  the  silence  had 
begun  to  make  itself  felt,  she  said  : 

"  Kate  Minster,  you  don't  mean  one  word  of  what 
you  are  saying." 

"  Ah,  but  I  do." 


"  Say  that  there  is  no  Answer"  287 

"  No ;  listen  to  me.  You  really  in  your  heart  respect 
Mr.  Tracy  very  much  for  his  action  to-day." 

"  For  being  so  much  less  eager  to  help  me  than  he 
was  to  help  the  milliner?" 

"  No  ;  for  not  being  willing  to  help  even  you  by 
doing  an  unfair  thing." 

"  Well — if  you  like — respect,  yes.  But  so  one  re 
spects  John  Knox,  and  Increase  Mather,  and  St. 
Simon  What's-his-name  on  top  of  the  pillar — all  the 
disagreeable  people,  in  fact.  But  it  isn't  respect 
that  makes  the  world  go  round.  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  caring  too  much  for  respect,  and  too  little 
for  warmth  of  feeling,  and  generous  impulses,  and — • 
and  so  on." 

"  You're  a  queer  girl,  Kate,"  was  all  Ethel  could 
think  to  say. 

This  time  the  silence  maintained  itself  so  long  that 
the  snapping  of  sparks  on  the  hearth,  and  even  the 
rushing  suction  of  air  in  the  lamp-flame,  grew  to  be 
obvious  noises.  At  last  Ethel  slid  softly  from  the 
couch  to  the  carpet,  and  nestled  her  head  against 
her  sister's  waist.  Kate  put  her  arm  tenderly  over 
the  girl's  shoulder,  and  drew  her  closer  to  her,  and 
the  silence  had  become  vocal  with  affectionate  mur- 
murings  to  them  both.  It  was  the  younger  sister 
who  finally  spoke: 

"  You  wont  do  anything  rash,  Kate  ?  Nothing 
without  talking  it  over  with  me?"  she  pleaded, 
almost  sadly. 

Kate  bent  over  and  kissed  her  twice,  thrice,  on 
the  forehead,  and  stroked  the  silken  hair  upon  this 


288  The  Lawton  Girl. 

forehead  caressingly.  Her  own  eyes  glistened  with 
the.  beginnings  of  tears  before  she  made  answer, 
rising  as  she  spoke,  and  striving  to  import  into  her 
voice  the  accent  of  gayety : 

"  As  if  I  ever  dreamed  of  doing  anything  at  all 
without  asking  you  !  And  please,  puss,  may  I  go 
to  bed  now  ?  " 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 
HORACE'S  PATH  BECOMES  TORTUOUS. 

"  TRACY  has  found  out  that  I'm  doing  the  Min 
ster  business,  and  he's  cut  up  rough  about  it.  I 
shouldn't  be  surprised  if  the  firm  came  a  cropper 
over  the  thing." 

Horace  Boyce  confided  this  information  to  Mr. 
Schuyler  Tenney  on  the  forenoon  following  his 
scene  with  Reuben,  and  though  the  language  in 
which  it  was  couched  was  in  part  unfamiliar,  the 
hardware  merchant  had  no  difficulty  in  grasping  its 
meaning.  He  stopped  his  task  of  going  through  the 
morning's  batch  of  business  letters,  and  looked  up 
keenly  at  the  young  man. 

"  Found  out — how  do  you  mean  ?  I  told  you  to 
tell  him — told  you  the  day  you  came  here  to  talk 
about  the  General's  affairs." 

"Well,  I  didn't  tell  him." 

"  And  why?"  Tenney  demanded,  sharply.  "I 
should  like  to  know  why?" 

"  Because  it  didn't  suit  me  to  do  so,"  replied  the 
young  man  ;  "just  as  it  doesn't  suit  me  now  to  be 
bullied  about  it." 

Mr.  Tenney  looked  for  just  a  fleeting  instant  as  if 
19 


290  The  Lawton  Girl. 

he  were  going  to  respond  in  kind.  Then  he  thought 
better  of  it,  and  began  toying  with  one  of  the  enve 
lopes  before  him. 

"  You  must  have  got  out  of  the  wrong  side  of  the 
bed  this  morning,"  he  said,  smilingly.  "  Why,  man 
alive,  nobody  dreamed  of  bullying  you.  Only,  of 
course,  it  would  have  been  better  if  you'd  told  Tracy. 
And  you  say  he  is  mad  about  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,  he  was  deucedly  offensive.  I  daresay  it 
will  come  to  an  open  row.  I  haven't  seen  him  yet 
to-day,  but  things  looked  very  dickey  indeed  for  the 
partnership  last  night." 

"Then  the  firm  hasn't  got  any  specified  term  to 
run  ?  " 

"  No ;  it  is  terminable  at  pleasure  of  both  parties, 
which  of  course  means  either  party." 

"  Well,  then,  you  can  tell  him  to  go  to  the  old 
Harry,  if  you  like." 

"  Precisely  what  I  mean  to  do — if— 

"If  what?" 

"  If  there  is  going  to  be  enough  in  this  Minster 
business  to  keep  me  going  in  the  mean  while.  I 
don't  think  I  could  take  much  of  his  regular  office 
business  away.  I  haven't  been  there  long  enough, 
you  know." 

"  Enough  ?  I  should  think  there  would  be 
enough  !  You  will  have  five  thousand  dollars  as  her 
representative  in  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing  Com 
pany.  I  daresay  you  might  charge  something  for 
acting  as  her  agent  in  the  pig-iron  trust,  too,  though 
I'd  draw  it  pretty  mild  if  I  were  you.  Women  get 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes   Tortuous.  291 

scared  at  bills  for  that  sort  of  thing.  A  young  fel 
low  like  you  ought  to  save  money  on  half  of  five 
thousand  dollars.  It  never  cost  me  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  yet  to  live,  and  live  well,  too." 

Horace  smiled  in  turn,  and  the  smile  was  felt  by 
both  to  suffice  without  words.  There  was  no  need 
to  express  in  terms  the  fact  that  in  matters  of 
necessary  expense  a  Boyce  and  a  Tenney  were  two 
widely  differentiated  persons.  Only  perhaps  Horace 
had  more  satisfaction  out  of  the  thought  than  did 
his  companion. 

"  Oh,  by  the  way,"  he  added,  "  I  ought  to  tell 
you,  Tracy  knows  in  some  way  that  you  are  mixed 
up  with  me  in  the  thing.  He  mentioned  your  name 
—in  that  slow,  ox-like  way  of  his,  so  that  I  couldn't 
tell  how  much  he  knew  or  suspected." 

Mr.  Tenney  was  interested  in  this,  and  showed  his 
concern  by  separating  the  letters  on  his  desk  into 
little  piles,  as  if  he  were  preparing  to  perform  a 
card  trick. 

"  I  guess  it  won't  matter  much,"  he  said  at  last. 
"  Everybody's  going  to  know  it  pretty  soon,  now." 
He  thought  again  for  a  little,  and  then  added : 
"  Only,  on  second  thought,  you'd  better  stick  in 
with  him  a  while  longer,  if  you  can.  Make  some 
sort  of  apology  to  him,  if  he  needs  one,  and  keep 
in  the  firm.  It  will  be  better  so." 

"Why  should  I,  pray?"  demanded  the  young 
man,  curtly. 

Mr.  Tenney  again  looked  momentarily  as  if  he 
were  tempted  to  reply  with  acerbity,  and  again  the 


292  The  Lawton  Girl. 

look  vanished  as  swiftly  as  it  came.  He  answered 
in  all  mildness : 

"  Because  I  don't  want  Tracy  to  be  sniffing  around, 
inquiring  into  things,  until  we  are  fairly  in  the  saddle. 
He  might  spoil  everything." 

"  But  how  will  my  remaining  with  him  prevent 
that  ?  " 

"You  don't  know  your  man,"  replied  Tenney. 
"  He's  one  of  those  fellows  who  would  feel  in  honor 
bound  to  keep  his  hands  off,  simply  because  you 
were  with  him.  That's  the  beauty  of  that  kind  of 
chap." 

This  tribute  to  the  moral  value  of  his  partner  im 
pressed  Horace  but  faintly.  "  Well,  I'll  see  how  he 
talks  to-day,"  he  said,  doubtfully.  "  Perhaps  we  can 
manage  to  hit  it  off  together  a  while  longer."  Then 
a  thought  crossed  his  mind,  and  he  asked  with 
abruptness  : 

"  What  are  you  afraid  of  his  finding  out,  if  he  does 
'  sniff  around  '  as  you  call  it  ?  What  is  there  to  find 
out?  Everything  is  above  board,  isn't  it  ?" 

"Why,  you  know  it  is.  Who  should  know  it 
better  than  you  ?"  Mr.  Tenney  responded. 

Horace  reasoned  to  himself  as  he  walked  away 
that  there  really  was  no  cause  for  apprehension. 
Tenney  was  smart,  and  evidently  Wendover  was 
smart  too,  but  if  they  tried  to  pull  the  wool  over  his 
eyes  they  would  find  that  he  himself  had  not  been 
born  yesterday.  He  had  done  everything  they  had 
suggested  to  him,  but  he  felt  that  the  independent 
and  even  captious  manner  in  which  he  had  done  it  all 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes   Tortuous.  293 

must  have  shown  the  schemers  that  he  was  not  a 
man  to  be  trifled  with.  Thus  far  he  could  see  no 
dishonesty  in  their  plans.  He  had  been  very  nerv 
ous  about  the  first  steps,  but  his  mind  was  almost 
easy  now.  He  was  in  a  position  where  he  could 
protect  the  Minsters  if  any  harm  threatened  them. 
And  very  soon  now,  he  said  confidently  to  himself, 
he  would  be  in  an  even  more  enviable  position- 
that  of  a  member  of  the  family  council,  a  prospec 
tive  son-in-law.  It  was  clear  to  his  perceptions  that 
Kate  liked  him,  and  that  he  had  no  rivals. 

It  happened  that  Reuben  did  not  refer  again  to 
the  subject  of  yesterday's  dispute,  and  while  Horace 
acquiesced  in  the  silence,  he  was  conscious  of  some 
disappointment  over  it.  It  annoyed  him  to  even 
look  at  his  partner  this  morning,  and  he  was  sick 
and  tired  of  the  partnership.  It  required  an  effort 
to  be  passing  civil  with  Reuben,  and  he  said  to  him 
self  a  hundred  times  during  the  day  that  he  should 
be  heartily  glad  when  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing 
Company  got  its  new  machinery  in,  and  began  real 
operations,  so  that  he  could  take  up  his  position 
there  as  the  visible  agent  of  the  millions,  and  pitch 
his  partner  and  the  pettifogging  law  business  over 
board  altogether. 

In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  he  went  to  the 
residence  of  the  Minsters.  The  day  was  not  Tues 
day,  but  Horace  regarded  himself  as  emancipated 
from  formal  conditions,  and  at  the  door  asked  for 
the  ladies,  and  then  made  his  own  way  into  the 
drawing-room,  with  entire  self-possession. 


294  The  Lawton  Girl. 

When  Mrs.  Minster  came  down,  he  had  some 
trivial  matter  of  business  ready  as  a  pretext  for  his 
visit,  but  her  manner  was  so  gracious  that  he  felt 
pleasantly  conscious  of  the  futility  of  pretexts.  He 
was  on  such  a  footing  in  the  Minster  household  that 
he  would  never  need  excuses  any  more. 

The  lady  herself  mentioned  the  plan  of  his  attend 
ing  the  forthcoming  meeting  of  the  directors  of  the 
pig-iron  trust  at  Pittsburg,  and  told  him  that  she 
had  instructed  her  bankers  to  deposit  with  his  bank 
ers  a  lump  sum  for  expenses  chargeable  against  the 
estate,  which  he  could  use  at  discretion.  "  You 
mustn't  be  asked  to  use  your  own  money  on  our 
business,"  she  said,  smilingly. 

It  is  only  natural  to  warm  toward  people  who 
have  such  nice  things  as  this  to  say,  and  Horace 
found  himself  assuming  a  very  confidential,  almost 
filial,  attitude  toward  Mrs.  Minster.  Her  kindness 
to  him  was  so  marked  that  he  felt  really  moved  by 
it,  and  in  a  gracefully  indirect  way  said  so.  He 
managed  this  by  alluding  to  his  own  mother,  who 
had  died  when  he  was  a  little  boy,  and  then  dwell 
ing,  with  a  tender  inflection  in  his  voice,  upon  the 
painful  loneliness  which  young  men  feel  who  are 
brought  up  in  motherless  homes.  "  It  seems  as  if  I 
had  never  known  a  home  at  all,"  he  said,  and  sighed. 

"  She  was  one  of  the  Beekmans  from  Tyre,  wasn't 
she?  I've  heard  Tabitha  speak  of  her  often,"  said 
Mrs.  Minster.  The  words  were  not  important,  but 
the  look  which  accompanied  them  was  distinctly 
sympathetic. 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes   Tortuous.  295 

Perhaps  it  was  this  glance  that  affected  Horace. 
He  made  a  little  gulping  sound  in  his  throat,  clinched 
his  hands  together,  and  looked  fixedly  down  upon 
the  pattern  of  the  carpet. 

"  We  should  both  have  been  better  men  if  she  had 
lived,"  he  murmured,  in  a  low  voice. 

As  no  answer  came,  he  was  forced  to  look  up  after 
a  time,  and  then  upon  the  instant  he  realized  that 
his  pathos  had  been  wasted,  for  Mrs.  Minster's  face 
did  not  betray  the  emotion  he  had  anticipated. 
She  seemed  to  have  been  thinking  of  something 
else. 

"  Have  you  seen  any  Bermuda  potatoes  in  the 
market  yet  ?  "  she  asked.  "  It's  about  time  for  them, 
isn't  it?" 

"  I'll  ask  my  father,"  Horace  replied,  determined 
not  to  be  thrown  off  the  trail.  "  He  has  been  in  the 
West  Indies  a  good  deal,  and  he  knows  all  about 
their  vegetables,  and  the  seasons,  and  so  on.  It  is 
about  him  that  I  wish  to  speak,  Mrs.  Minster." 

The  lady  nodded  her  head,  and  drew  down  the 
corners  of  her  mouth  a  little. 

"  I  feel  the  homeless  condition  of  the  General  very 
much,"  Horace  went  on.  "The  death  of  my  mother 
was  a  terrible  blow  to  him,  one  he  has  never  recov 
ered  from." 

Mrs.  Minster  had  heard  differently,  but  she  nodded 
her  head  again  in  sympathy  with  this  new  view. 
Horace  had  not  been  mistaken  in  believing  that 
filial  affection  was  good  in  her  eyes. 

"So  he  has  lived  all  these  years  almost  alone  in 


296  The  Lawton  Girl. 

the  big  house,"  the  son  proceeded,  "  and  the  solitary 
life  has  affected  his  spirits,  weakened  his  ambition, 
relaxed  his  regard  for  the  part  he  ought  to  play  in 
the  community.  Since  I  have  been  back,  he  has 
brightened  up  a  good  deal.  He  has  been  a  most 
loving  father  to  me  always,  and  I  would  do  anything 
in  the  world  to  contribute  to  his  happiness.  It  is 
borne  in  upon  me  more  and  more  that  if  I  had  a 
cheerful  home  to  which  he  could  turn  for  warmth 
and  sunshine,  if  I  had  a  wife  whom  he  could  rever 
ence  and  be  fond  of,  if  there  were  grandchildren  to 
greet  him  when  he  came  and  to  play  upon  his  knee 
— he  would  feel  once  more  as  if  there  was  something 
in  life  worth  living  for." 

Horace  awaited  with  deep  anxiety  the  answer  to 
this.  The  General  was  the  worst  card  in  his  hand, 
one  which  he  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  at  any  risk.  If  it 
should  turn  out  that  it  had  actually  taken  a  trick  in 
the  game,  then  he  would  indeed  be  lucky. 

"  If  it  is  no  offence,  how  old  arc  you,  Mr.  Boyce?" 
the  lady  asked. 

"  I  shall  be  twenty-eight  in  April." 

Mrs.  Minster  seemed  to  approve  the  figures.  "  I 
never  have  believed  in  early  marriages,"  she  said. 
"  They  make  more  than  half  the  trouble  there  is. 
The  Mauverensens  were  never  great  hands  for  marry 
ing  early.  My  grandfather,  Major  Douw,  was  almost 
thirty,  and  my  father  was  past  that  age.  And,  of 
course,  people  married  then  much  earlier  than  they 
do  nowadays." 

"  I    hope    you    do    not    think   twenty-eight   too 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes   Tortuous,  297 

young,"  Horace  pleaded,  with  alert  eyes  resting  on 
her  face.  He  paused  only  for  an  instant,  and  then, 
just  as  the  tremor  arising  in  his  heart  had  reached 
his  tongue,  added  earnestly,  "  For  it  is  a  Mauveren- 
sen  I  wish  to  marry." 

Mrs.  Minster  looked  at  him  with  no  light  of  com 
prehension  in  her  glance.  "  It  can't  be  our  people," 
she  said,  composedly,  "  for  Anthony  has  no  daugh 
ters.  It  must  be  some  of  the  Schenectady  lot. 
We're  not  related  at  all.  They  try  to  make  out  that 
they  are,  but  they're  not." 

"  You  are  very  closely  and  tenderly  related  to  the 
young  lady  I  have  learned  to  adore,"  the  young  man 
said,  leaning  forward  on  his  low  chair  until  one  knee 
almost  touched  the  carpet.  "  I  called  her  a  Mauver- 
ensen  because  she  is  worthy  of  that  historic  blood, 
but  it  was  her  mother's,  not  her  father's  name. 
Mrs.  Minster,  I  love  your  daughter  Kate ! " 

"  Goodness  me !  "  was  the  astonished  lady's  com 
ment. 

She  stared  at  the  young  man  in  suppliant  atti 
tude  before  her,  in  very  considerable  confusion  of 
thought,  and  for  what  seemed  to  him  an  intolerable 
time. 

"  I  am  afraid  it  wouldn't  do  at  all,"  she  said  first, 
doubtingly.  Then  she  added,  as  if  thinking  aloud  : 
"  I  might  have  known  Kate  was  keeping  something 
from  me.  She  hasn't  been  herself  at  all  these  last 
few  weeks." 

"  But  she  has  not  been  keeping  this  from  you, 
Mrs.  Minster,"  urged  the  young  man,  in  his  softest 


298  The  Lawton  Girl. 

voice.  "  It  is  my  own  secret — all  my  own — kept 
locked  in  the  inner  tabernacle  of  my  heart  until  this 
very  moment,  when  I  revealed  it  to  you." 

"  You  mean  that  Kate — my  daughter — does  not 
know  of  this?  " 

"She  must  know  that  I  worship  the  ground  she 
treads  on — she  would  be  blind  not  to  realize  that — 
but  I  have  never  said  a  word  to  her  about  it.  No, 
not  a  word  !  " 

Mrs.  Minster  uttered  the  little  monosyllable 
"  oh!  "  with  a  hesitating,  long-drawn-out  sound.  It 
was  evident  that  this  revelation  altered  matters  in 
her  mind,  and  Horace  hurried  on  : 

"  No,"  he  said;  "  the  relation  between  mother  and 
child  has  always  seemed  to  me  the  most  sacred 
thing  on  earth — perhaps  because  my  own  mother 
died  so  many,  many  years  ago.  I  would  rather 
stifle  my  own  feelings  than  let  an  act  of  mine  dese 
crate  or  imperil  that  relation.  It  may  be  that  I  am 
old-fashioned,  Mrs.  Minster,"  the  young  man  con 
tinued,  with  a  deprecatory  smile,  "  but  I  like  the  old 
habit  of  the  good  families — that  of  deferring  to  the 
parents.  I  say  that  to  them  the  chief  courtesy  and 
deference  are  due.  I  know  it  is  out  of  date,  but  I 
have  always  felt  that  way.  So  I  speak  to  you  first. 
I  say  to  you  with  profound  respect  that  you  have 
reared  the  loveliest  and  best  of  all  the  daughters  of 
the  sons  of  men,  and  that  if  you  will  only  entertain 
the  idea  of  permitting  me  to  strive  to  win  her  love, 
I  shall  be  the  proudest  and  happiest  mortal  on 
earth." 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes   Tortuous.  299 

Whatever  might  betide  with  the  daughter,  the 
conquest  of  the  mother  was  easy  and  complete. 

"  I  like  your  sentiments  very  much  indeed,"  she 
said,  with  evident  sincerity.  "  And  I  like  you  too. 
I  may  as  well  tell  you  so.  Of  course  I  haven't  the 
least  idea  what  Kate  will  say." 

"  Oh,  leave  that  to  me  !  "  said  Horace,  with  ardent 
confidence.  Then,  after  this  rapturous  outburst,  he 
went  on  more  quietly  :  "  I  would  beg  of  you  not  to 
mention  the  subject  to  her.  I  think  that  would  be 
best.  Your  favor  has  allowed  me  to  come  and  go 
here  on  pleasant  terms  of  friendship.  Let  these 
terms  not  be  altered.  I  will  not  ask  your  daughter 
to  commit  herself  until  she  has  had  time  and  chance 
to  know  me  through  and  through.  It  would  not 
be  fair  to  her  otherwise.  To  pick  a  husband  is  the 
one  grand,  irrevocable  step  in  a  young  girl's  life.  Its 
success  means  bliss,  content,  sunshine  ;  its  failure 
means  all  that  is  the  reverse.  Therefore,  I  say,  she 
cannot  have  too  much  information,  too  many  advan 
tages,  to  help  her  in  her  choice." 

Thus  it  came  to  be  understood  that  Mrs.  Minster 
was  to  say  nothing,  and  was  not  to  seem  to  make 
more  of  Horace  than  she  had  previously  done. 

Then  he  bowed  over  her  hand  and  lightly  kissed 
it,  in  a  fashion  which  the  good  lady  fondly  assumed 
to  be  European,  and  was  gone. 

Mrs.  Minster  spent  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  and 
evening  in  a  semi-dazed  abstraction  of  mental  power, 
from  time  to  time  fitfully  remembering  some  wealthy 
young  man  whom  she  had  vaguely  considered  as  a 


300  The  Lawton  Girl. 

possible  son-in-law,  and  sighing  impartially  over  each 
mustached  and  shirt-fronted  figure  as  she  pushed  it 
out  into  the  limbo  of  the  might-have-been.  She 
almost  groaned  once  when  she  recalled  that  this 
secret  must  be  kept  even  from  her  friend  Tabitha. 

As  for  Horace,  he  walked  on  air.  The  marvel  of 
his  great  success  surrounded  and  lifted  him,  as  angels 
bear  the  souls  of  the  blessed  fleeting  from  earth  in 
the  artist's  dream.  The  young  Bonaparte,  home 
from  Italy  and  the  reproduction  of  Hannibal's  sto 
ried  feat,  with  Paris  on  its  knees  before  him  and 
France  resounding  with  his  name,  could  not  have 
swung  his  shoulders  more  proudly,  or  gazed  upon 
unfolding  destiny  with  a  more  exultant  confi 
dence. 

On  his  way  homeward  an  instinctive  desire  to  be 
alone  with  his  joy  led  him  to  choose  unfrequented 
streets,  and  on  one  of  these  he  passed  a  milliner's 
shop  which  he  had  never  seen  before.  He  would 
not  have  noted  it  now,  save  that  his  eye  was  uncon 
sciously  caught  by  some  stray  freak  of  color  in  the 
window  where  bonnets  were  displayed.  Then,  still 
unconsciously,  his  vision  embraced  the  glass  door 
beside  this  window,  and  there  suddenly  it  was  ar 
rested  and  turned  to  a  bewildered  stare. 

In  the  dusk  of  the  little  shop  nothing  could  be 
distinguished  but  two  figures  which  stood  close  by 
the  door.  The  dying  light  from  the  western  sky, 
ruddily  brilliant  and  penetrating  in  its  final  glow, 
fell  full  upon  the  faces  of  these  two  as  they  were 
framed  in  profile  by  the  door. 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes  Tortuous.  30! 

One  was  the  face  of  Kate  Minster,  the  woman  he 
was  to  wed.  The  other  was  the  face  of  Jessica  Law- 
ton,  the  woman  whose  life  he  had  despoiled. 

Horace  realized  nothing  else  so  swiftly  as  that  he 
had  not  been  seen,  and,  with  an  instinctive  lowering 
of  the  head  and  a  quickened  step,  he  passed  on.  It 
was  not  until  he  had  got  out  of  the  street  altogether 
that  he  breathed  a  long  breath  and  was  able  to 
think.  Then  he  found  himself  trembling  with  ex 
citement,  as  if  he  had  been  through  a  battle  or  a 
burning  house. 

Reflection  soon  helped  his  nerves  to  quietude 
again.  Evidently  the  girl  had  opened  a  millinery 
shop,  and  evidently  Miss  Minster  was  buying  a  bon 
net  of  her.  That  was  all  there  was  of  it,  and  surely 
there  was  no  earthly  cause  for  perturbation  in  that. 
The  young  man  had  thought  so  lightly  of  the  Law- 
ton  incident  at  Thanksgiving  time  that  it  had  never 
since  occurred  to  him  to  ask  Tracy  about  its  sequel. 
It  came  to  his  mind  now  that  Tracy  had  probably 
helped  her  to  start  the  shop.  "  Damn  Tracy  !  "  he 
said  to  himself. 

No,  there  was  nothing  to  be  uneasy  about  in  the 
casual,  commercial  meeting  of  these  two  women. 
He  became  quite  clear  on  this  point  as  he  strode 
along  toward  home.  At  his  next  meeting  with  Kate 
it  might  do  no  harm  to  mention  having  seen  her 
there  in  passing,  and  to  drop  a  hint  as  to  the  char 
acter  of  the  girl  whom  she  was  dealing  with.  He 
would  see  how  the  talk  shaped  itself,  after  the  Law- 
ton  woman's  name  had  been  mentioned.  It  was  a 


302  The  Lawton  Girl. 

great  nuisance,  her  coming  to  Thessaly,  anyway. 
He  didn't  wish  her  any  special  harm,  but  if  she  got 
in  his  way  here  she  should  be  crushed  like  an  insect. 
But,  pshaw !  it  was  silly  to  conceive  injury  or  embar 
rassment  coming  from  her. 

So  with  a  laugh  he  dismissed  the  subject  from  his 
thoughts,  and  went  home  to  dine  with  his  father,  and 
gladdened  the  General's  heart  by  a  more  or  less 
elaborated  account  of  the  day's  momentous  event, 
in  complete  forgetfulness  of  the  shock  he  had  had. 

In  the  dead  of  the  night,  however,  he  did  think 
of  it  again  with  a  vengeance.  He  awoke  screaming, 
and  cold  with  frightened  quakings,  under  the  spell 
of  some  hideous  nightmare.  When  he  thought  upon 
them,  the  terrors  of  his  dream  were  purely  fantastic 
and  could  not  be  shaped  into  any  kind  of  coherent 
form.  But  the  profile  of  the  Lawton  girl  seemed  to 
be  a  part  of  all  these  terrors,  a  twisted  and  elongated 
side-face,  with  staring,  empty  eyes  and  lips  down- 
drawn  like  those  of  the  Medusa's  head,  and  yet, 
strangely  enough,  with  a  certain  shifting  effect  of 
beauty  upon  it  all  under  the  warm  light  of  a  winter 
sunset. 

Horace  lay  a  long  time  awake,  deliberately  striving 
to  exorcise  this  repellent  countenance  by  fixing  his 
thoughts  upon  the  other  face — the  strong,  beautiful, 
queenly  face  of  the  girl  who  was  to  be  his  wife.  But 
he  could  not  bring  up  before  his  mind's  eye  this  pic 
ture  that  he  wanted,  and  he  could  not  drive  the  other 
away. 

Sleep  came   again  somehow,  and   there   were  no 


Horace  s  Path  Becomes   Tortuous.  303 

more  bad  dreams  to  be  remembered.  In  the  morn 
ing  Horace  did  not  even  recall  very  distinctly  the 
episode  of  the  nightmare,  but  he  discovered  some 
novel  threads  of  gray  at  his  temple  as  he  brushed  his 
hair,  and  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  too,  he  took  a 
drink  of  spirits  before  breakfast. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

A   VEHEMENT   RESOLVE. 

THE  sloppy  snow  went  away  at  last,  and  the  re 
luctant  frost  was  forced  to  follow,  yet  not  before  it 
had  wreaked  its  spite  by  softening  all  the  country 
roads  into  dismal  swamps  of  mud,  and  heaving  into 
painful  confusion  of  holes  and  hummocks  the  pave 
ments  on  Thessaly's  main  streets.  But  in  compen 
sation  the  birds  came  back,  and  the  crocus  and  hya 
cinth  showed  themselves,  and  buds  warmed  to  life 
again  along  the  tender  silk-brown  boughs  and  melted 
into  the  pale  bright  green  of  a  spring's  new  foliage. 
Overcoats  disappeared,  and  bare-legged  boys  with 
poles  and  strings  of  fish  dawned  upon  the  vision. 
The  air  was  laden  with  the  perfume  of  lilacs  and  talk 
about  base-ball. 

From  this  to  midsummer  seemed  but  a  step. 
The  factory  workmen  walked  more  wearily  up  the 
hill  in  the  heat  to  their  noonday  dinners  ;  lager-beer 
kegs  advanced  all  at  once  to  be  the  chief  staple  of 
freight  traffic  at  the  railway  de"pot.  People  who 
could  afford  to  take  travelling  vacations  began  to 
make  their  plans  or  to  fulfil  them,  and  those  who 
could  not  began  musing  pleasantly  upon  the  charms 
of  hop-picking  in  September.  And  then,  lo  !  it  was 


A    Vehement  Resolve.  305 

autumn,  and  young  men  added  with  pride  another 
unit  to  the  sum  of  their  age,  and  their  mothers  and 
sisters  secretly  subtracted  such  groups  or  fractions 
of  units  as  were  needful,  and  felt  no  more  compunc 
tion  at  thus  hoodwinking  Time  than  if  he  had  been 
a  customs-officer. 

The  village  of  Thessaly,  which  like  a  horizon  en 
compassed  most  of  the  individuals  whom  we  know, 
could  tell  little  more  than  this  of  the  months  that 
had  passed  since  Thanksgiving  Day,  now  once  again 
the  holiday  closest  at  hand.  The  seasons  of  rest 
and  open-air  amusement  lay  behind  it,  and /in  front 
was  a  vista  made  of  toil.  There  had  been  many 
deaths,  and  still  more  numerous  births,  and  none  in 
either  class  mattered  much  save  under  the  roof-tree 
actually  blessed  or  afflicted.  The  year  had  been 
fairly  prosperous,  and  the  legislature  had  passed 
the  bill  which  at  New  Year's  would  enable  the  vil 
lage  to  call  itself  a  city. 

Of  the  people  with  whom  this  story  is  concerned, 
there  is  scarcely  more  to  record  during  this  lapse  of 
time. 

Jessica  Lawton  was  perhaps  the  one  most  con 
scious  of  change.  At  the  very  beginning  of  spring, 
indeed  on  the  very  day  when  Horace  had  his  mo 
mentary  fright  in  passing  the  shop,  Miss  Minster 
had  visited  her,  had  brought  a  reasonably  compre 
hensive  plan  for  the  Girls'  Resting  House,  as  she 
wanted  it  called,  and  had  given  her  a  considerable  sum 
of  money  to  carry  out  this  plan.  For  a  long  time  it 
puzzled  Jessica  a  good  deal  that  Miss  Minster  never 

20 


306  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

came  again.  The  scheme  took  on  tangible  form  ; 
some  score  of  work-girls  availed  themselves  of  its 
privileges,  and  the  result  thus  far  involved  less  fric 
tion  and  more  substantial  success  than  Jessica  had 
dared  to  expect.  It  seemed  passing  strange  that 
Miss  Minster,  who  had  been  so  deeply  enthusiastic  at 
first,  should  never  have  cared  to  come  and  see  the 
enterprise,  now  that  it  was  in  working  order.  Once 
or  twice  Miss  Tabitha  had  dropped  in,  and  professed 
to  be  greatly  pleased  with  everything,  but  even  in 
her  manner  there  was  an  indefinable  alteration  which 
forbade  questions  about  the  younger  lady. 

There  were  rumors  about  in  the  town  which  might 
have  helped  Jessica  to  an  explanation  had  they 
reached  her.  The  village  gossips  did  not  fail  to  note 
that  the  Minster  family  made  a  much  longer  sojourn 
this  year  at  Newport,  and  then  at  Brick  Church, 
New  Jersey,  than  they  had  ever  done  before  ;  and 
gradually  the  intelligence  sifted  about  that  young 
Horace  Boyce  had  spent  a  considerable  portion  of 
his  summer  vacation  with  them.  Thessaly  could 
put  two  and  two  together  as  well  as  any  other  com 
munity.  The  understanding  little  by  little  spread 
its  way  that  Horace  was  going  to  marry  into  the 
Minster  millions. 

If  there  were  repinings  over  this  foreseen  event, 
they  were  carefully  dissembled.  People  who  knew 
the  young  man  liked  him  well  enough.  His  pro 
fessional  record  was  good,  and  he  had  made  a  speech 
on  the  Fourth  of  July  which  pleased  everybody  ex 
cept  'Squire  Gedney  ;  but  then,  the  spiteful  old  uCal " 


A    Vehement  Resolve.  307 

never  liked  anybody's  speeches  save  his  own.  Even 
more  satisfaction  was  felt,  however,  on  the  score  of 
the  General.  His  son  was  a  showy  young  fellow, 
smart  and  well-dressed,  no  doubt,  but  perhaps  a 
trifle  too  much  given  to  patronizing  folks  who  had 
not  been  to  Europe,  and  did  not  scrub  themselves 
all  over  with  cold  water,  and  put  on  a  clean  shirt  with 
both  collar  and  cuffs  attached,  every  morning.  But 
for  the  General  there  was  a  genuine  affection.  It 
pleased  Thessaly  to  note  that,  since  he  had  begun 
to  visit  at  the  home  of  the  Minsters,  other  signs  of 
social  rehabilitation  had  followed,  and  that  he  him 
self  drank  less  and  led  a  more  orderly  life  than  of 
yore.  When  his  intimates  jokingly  congratulated 
him  on  the  rumors  of  his  son's  good  fortune,  the 
General  tacitly  gave  them  confirmation  by  his  smile. 

If  Jessica  had  heard  these  reports,  she  might  have 
traced  at  once  to  its  source  Miss  Minster's  sudden 
and  inexplicable  coolness.  Not  hearing  them,  she 
felt  grieved  and  perplexed  for  a  time,  and  then 
schooled  herself  into  resignation  as  she  recalled 
Reuben  Tracy's  warning  about  the  way  rich  people 
took  up  whims  and  dropped  them  again,  just  as 
fancy  dictated. 

It  was  on  the  first  day  of  November  that  the 
popular  rumor  as  to  Horace's  prospects  reached 
her,  and  this  was  a  day  memorable  for  vastly  more 
important  occurrences  in  the  history  of  industrial 
Thessaly. 

The  return  of  cold  weather  had  been  marked, 
among  other  signs  of  the  season,  by  a  renewed  dis- 


308  The  Lawton  Girl. 

position  on  the  part  of  Ben  Lawton  to  drop  in  to 
the  millinery  shop,  and  sit  around  by  the  fire  in  the 
inner  room.  Ben  came  this  day  somewhat  earlier 
than  usual — the  midday  meal  was  in  its  preliminary 
stages  of  preparation  under  Lucinda's  red  hands — 
and  it  was  immediately  evident  that  he  was  more 
excited  over  something  that  had  happened  outside 
than  by  his  expectation  of  getting  a  dinner. 

"  There's  the  very  old  Nick  to  pay  down  in  the 
village !  "  he  said,  as  he  put  his  feet  on  the  stove- 
hearth.  "  Heard  about  it,  any  of  you  ?  " 

Ben  had  scarcely  ascended  in  the  social  scale 
during  the  scant  year  that  had  passed,  though  the 
general  average  of  whiteness  in  his  paper  collars  had 
somewhat  risen,  and  his  hair  and  straggling  dry-mud- 
colored  beard  were  kept  more  duly  under  the  sub 
jection  of  shears.  His  clothes,  too,  were  whole  and 
unworn,  but  they  hung  upon  his  slouching  and 
round-shouldered  figure  with  "poor  white"  written 
in  every  misfitting  fold  and  on  every  bagging  pro 
jection.  Jessica  had  resigned  all  hope  that  he  would 
ever  be  anything  but  a  canal  boatman  in  mien  or 
ambition,  but  her  affection  for  him  had  grown  rather 
than  diminished  ;  and  she  was  glad  that  Lucinda, 
in  whom  there  had  been  more  marked  personal  im 
provements,  seemed  also  to  like  him  better. 

No,  Jessica  said,  she  had  heard  nothing. 

"  Well,  the  Minster  furnaces  was  all  shut  down  this 
morning,  and  so  was  the  work  out  at  the  ore-beds  at 
Juno,  and  the  men,  boys,  and  girls  in  the  Thessaly 
Company's  mills  all  got  word  that  wages  was  going 


A    Vehement  Resolve.  309 

to  be  cut  down.  You  can  bet  there's  a  buzz  around 
town,  with  them  three  things  coming  all  together, 
smack  !  " 

"  I  suppose  so,"  answered  Jessica,  still  bending 
over  her  work  of  cleaning  and  picking  out  some 
plumes.  "  That  looks  bad  for  business  this  winter, 
doesn't  it  ?" 

"Ben's  relations  with  business,  or  with  industry 
generally,  were  of  the  most  remote  and  casual 
sort,  but  he  had  a  lively  objective  interest  in  the 
topic. 

"  Why,  it's  the  worst  thing  that  ever  happened," 
he  said,  with  conviction.  "  There's  seven  hundred 
men  thrown  out  already  "  (the  figure  was  really  two 
hundred  and  twelve),  "  and  more  than  a  thousand 
more  got  to  git  unless  they'll  work  for  starvation 
wages." 

"  It  seems  very  hard,"  the  girl  made  reply.  The 
idea  came  to  her  that  very  possibly  this  would  put 
an  extra  strain  upon  the  facilities  and  financial 
strength  of  the  Resting  House. 

"  Hard  !  "  her  father  exclaimed,  stretching  his 
hands  over  the  stove-top  ;  "  them  rich  people  are 
harder  than  Pharaoh's  heart.  What  do  them  Min 
sters  care  about  poor  folks,  whether  they  starve  or 
freeze  to  death,  or  anything  ?  " 

"  Oh,  it  is  the  Minsters,  you  say  !  "  Jessica  looked 
up  now,  with  a  new  interest.  "  Sure  enough,  they 
own  the  furnaces.  How  could  they  have  done  such 
a  thing,  with  winter  right  ahead  of  us  ?  " 

"  It's  all  to  make  more  money,"  put  in  Lucinda, 


3IO  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Them  that  don't  need  it'll  do  anything  to  get  it. 
What  do  they  care?  That  Kate  Minster  of  yours, 
for  instance,  she'll  wear  her  sealskin  and  eat  pie 
just  the  same.  What  does  it  matter  to  her?  " 

"  No  ;  she  has  a  good  heart.  I  know  she  has,"  said 
Jessica.  "  She  wouldn't  willingly  do  harm  to  any 
one.  But  perhaps  she  has  nothing  to  do  with  man 
aging  such  things.  Yes,  that  must  be  it." 

"  I  guess  Schuyler  Tenney  and  Hod  Boyce  about 
run  the  thing,  from  what  I  hear,"  commented  the 
father.  "  Tenney's  been  bossing  around  since 
summer  begun,  and  Boyce  is  the  lawyer,  so  they 
say." 

Ben  suddenly  stopped,  and  looked  first  at  Jessica, 
then  at  Lucinda.  Catching  thelatter's  eye,  he  made 
furtive  motions  to  her  to  leave  the  room  ;  but  she 
either  did  not  or  would  not  understand  them,  and 
continued  stolidly  at  her  work. 

"That  Kate  you  spoke  about,"  he  went  on  stum- 
blingly,  nodding  hints  at  Lucinda  to  go  away  as  he 
spoke,  "  she's  the  tall  girl,  with  the  black  eyes  and 
her  chin  up  in  the  air,  ain't  she  ?" 

"  Yes,"  the  two  sisters  answered,  speaking  to 
gether. 

"  Well,  as  I  was  saying  about  Hod  Boyce,"  Ben 
said,  and  then  stopped  in  evident  embarrassment. 
Finally  he  added,  confusedly  avoiding  Jessica's 
glance,  "  'Cindy,  won't  you  jest  step  outside  for  a 
minute?  I  want  to  tell  your  sister  something — 
something  you  don't  know  about." 

"  She  knows  about   Horace   Boyce,   father,"  said 


A    Vehement  Resolve,  311 

Jessica,  flushing,  but  speaking  calmly.  "  There  is  no 
need  of  her  going." 

Luanda,  however,  wiped  her  hands  on  her  apron, 
and  went  out  into  the  store,  shutting  the  door  behind 
her.  Then  Ben,  ostentatiously  regarding  the  hands 
he  held  out  over  the  stove,  and  turning  them  as  if 
they  had  been  fowls  on  a  spit,  sought  hesitatingly  for 
words  with  which  to  unbosom  himself. 

"  You  see,"  he  began,  "  as  I  was  a-saying,  Hod 
Boyce  is  the  lawyer,  and  he's  pretty  thick  with 
Schuyler  Tenney,  his  father's  partner,  which,  of 
course,  is  only  natural ;  and  Tenney  he  kind  of  runs 
the  whole  thing — and — and  that's  it,  don't  you  see  !  " 

"  You  didn't  send  Lucinda  out  in  order  to  tell  me 
that,  surely?" 

"  Well,  no.  But  Hod  being  the  lawyer,  as  I  said, 
why,  don't  you  see,  he  has  a  good  deal  to  say  for 
himself  with  the  women-folks,  and  he's  been  off  with 
them  down  to  the  sea-side,  and  so  it's  come  about 
that  they  say— 

"  They  say  what  ?"  The  girl  had  laid  down  her 
work  altogether. 

"  They  say  he's  going  to  marry  the  girl  you  call 
Kate — the  big  one  with  the  black  eyes." 

The  story  was  out.  Jessica  sat  still  under  the 
revelation  for  a  moment,  and  held  up  a  restraining 
hand  when  her  father  offered  to  speak  further. 
Then  she  rose  and  walked  to  and  fro  across  the 
little  room,  in  front  of  the  stove  where  Ben  sat,  her 
hands  hanging  at  her  side  and  her  brows  bent  with 
thought.  At  last  she  stopped  before  him  and  said : 


312  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Tell  me  all  over  again  about  the  stopping  of  the 
works — all  you  know  about  it." 

Ben  Lawton  complied,  and  re-stated,  with  as  much 
detail  as  he  could  command,  the  facts  already  ex 
posed. 

The  girl  listened  carefully,  but  with  growing  dis 
appointment.  Somehow  the  notion  had  arisen  in 
her  mind  that  there  would  be  something  important 
in  this  story — something  which  it  would  be  of  use  to 
understand.  But  her  brain  could  make  nothing  sig 
nificant  out  of  this  commonplace  narrative  of  a  lock 
out  and  a  threatened  dispute  about  wages.  Gradu 
ally,  as  she  thought,  two  things  rose  as  certainties 
upon  the  surface  of  her  reflections. 

"  That  scoundrel  is  to  blame  for  both  things.  He 
advised  her  to  avoid  me,  and  he  advised  her  to  do 
this  other  mischief." 

"I  thought  you'd  like  to  know,"  Ben  put  in, 
deferentially.  He  felt  a  very  humble  individual  in 
deed  when  his  eldest  daughter  paced  up  and  down 
and  spoke  in  that  tone. 

"  Yes,  I'm  glad  I  know,"  she  said,  swiftly.  She 
eyed  her  father  in  an  abstracted  way  for  an  instant, 
and  then  added,  as  if  thinking  aloud  :  "  Well,  then, 
my  fine  gentleman,  you — simply — shall — not — marry 
Miss  Minster!  " 

Ben  moved  uneasily  in  his  seat,  as  if  this  warning 
had  been  personally  addressed  to  him.  "  It  would 
be  pretty  rough,  for  a  fact,  wouldn't  it?"  he  said. 

"  Well,  it  won't  be  at  all ! "  she  made  emphatic 
answer. 


A    Vehement  Resolve.  313 

"  I  don't  know  as  you  can  do  much  to  pervent  it, 
Jess,"  he  ventured  to  say. 

"  Can't  I  ?  Cant  I !  "  she  exclaimed,  with'  grim 
earnestness.  "  Wait  and  see." 

Ben  had  waited  all  his  life,  and  he  proceeded  now 
to  take  her  at  her  word,  sitting  very  still,  and  fixing 
a  ruminative  gaze  on  the  side  of  the  little  stove. 
"  All  right,"  he  said,  wrapped  in  silence  and  the 
placidity  of  contented  suspense. 

But  Jessica  was  now  all  eagerness  and  energy. 
She  opened  the  store  door,  and  called  out  to  Lucinda 
with  business-like  decision  of  tone :  "  Come  in  now, 
and  hurry  dinner  up  as  fast  as  you  can.  I  want  to 
catch  the  1.20  train  for  Tecumseh." 

The  other  two  made  no  comment  on  this  hasty 
resolve,  but  during  the  brief  and  not  over-inviting 
meal  which  followed,  watched  their  kinswoman  with 
side-glances  of  uneasy  surprise.  The  girl  herself 
hastened  through  her  dinner  without  a  word  of  con 
versation,  and  then  disappeared  within  the  little 
chamber  where  she  and  Lucinda  slept  together. 

It  was  only  when  she  came  out  again,  with  her 
hat  and  cloak  on  and  a  little  travelling-bag  in  her 
hand,  that  she  felt  impelled  to  throw  some  light  on 
her  intention.  She  took  from  her  purse  a  bank-note 
and  gave  it  to  her  sister. 

"  Shut  up  the  store  at  half-past  four  or  five  to 
day,"  she  said  ;  "  and  there  are  two  things  I  want 
you  to  do  for  me  outside.  Go  around  the  furniture 
stores,  and  get  some  kind  of  small  sofa  that  will  turn 
into  a  bed  at  night,  and  whatever  extra  bed-clothes 


314  The  Lawton  Girl. 

we  need  for  it — as  cheap  as  you  can.  We've  got  a 
pillow  to  spare,  haven't  we  ?  You  can  put  those  two 
chairs  out  in  the  Resting  House  ;  that  will  make  a 
place  for  the  bed  in  this  room.  You  must  have  it 
all  ready  when  I  get  back  to-morrow  night.  You 
needn't  say  anything  to  the  girls,  except  that  I  am 
away  for  a  day.  And  then — or  no :  you  can  do  it 
better,  father." 

The  girl  had  spoken  swiftly,  but  with  ready  pre 
cision.  As  she  turned  now  to  the  wondering  Ben, 
she  lost  something  of  her  collected  demeanor,  and 
hesitated  for  a  moment. 

"  I  want  you — I  want  you  to  see  Reuben  Tracy, 
and  ask  him  to  come  here  at  six  to-morrow,"  she 
said.  She  deliberated  upon  this  for  an  instant,  and 
held  out  her  hand  as  if  she  had  changed  her  mind. 
Then  she  nodded,  and  said  :  "  Or  no  :  tell  him  I  will 
come  to  his  office,  and  at  six  sharp.  It  will  be  bet 
ter  that  way." 

When  she  had  perfunctorily  kissed  them  both, 
and  gone,  silence  fell  upon  the  room.  Ben  took  his 
pipe  out  of  his  pocket  and  looked  at  it  with  tentative 
longing,  and  then  at  the  stove. 

"  You  can  go  out  in  the  yard  and  smoke,  if  you 
want  to,  but  not  in  here,"  said  Lucinda,  promptly. 
"  You  wouldn't  dare  think  of  such  a  thing  if  she  were 
here,"  she  added,  with  reproach. 

Ben  put  back  his  pipe  and  seated  himself  again 
by  the  fire.  "Mighty  queer  girl,  that,  eh?"  he 
said.  "  When  she  gets  stirred  up,  she's  a  hustler, 
eh?" 


A    Vehement  Resolve.  315 

"  It  must  be  she  takes  it  from  you,"  said  Lucinda, 
with  a  modified  grin  of  irony. 

The  sarcasm  fell  short  of  its  mark.  "  No,"  said 
Ben,  with  quiet  candor,  "  she  gets  it  from  my  father. 
He  used  to  count  on  licking  a  lock-tender  some 
where  along  the  canal  every  time  he  made  a  trip.  I 
remember  there  was  one  particular  fellow  on  the 
Montezuma  Ma'ash  that  he  used  to  whale  for  choice, 
but  any  of  'em  would  do  on  a  pinch.  He  was  jest 
blue-mouldy  for  a  fight  all  the  while,  your  grand 
father  was.  He  was  Benjamin  Franklin  Lawton, 
the  same  as  me,  but  somehow  I  never  took  much  to 
rassling  round  or  fighting.  It's  more  in  my  line  to 
take  things  easy." 

Lucinda  bore  an  armful  of  dishes  out  into  the 
kitchen,  without  making  any  reply,  and  Ben,  pres 
ently  wearying  of  solitude,  followed  to  where  she 
bent  over  the  sink,  enveloped  in  soap-suds  and 
steam. 

u  I  suppose  you've  got  an  idea  what  she's  gone 
for?"  he  propounded,  with  caution. 

"  It's  a  '  who  '  she's  gone  for,"  said  Lucinda. 

Pronouns  were  not  Ben's  strongpoint,  and  he  said, 
"Yes,  I  suppose  it  is,"  rather  helplessly.  He  waited 
in  patience  for  more  information,  and  by  and  by  it 
came. 

"  If  I  was  her,  I  wouldn't  do  it,"  said  Lucinda, 
slapping  a  plate  impatiently  with  the  wet  cloth. 

"  No,  I  don't  suppose  you  would.  In  some  ways 
you  always  had  more  sense  than  people  give  you 
credit  for,  'Cindy,"  remarked  the  father,  with  guarded 


316  The  Lawton  Girl. 

flattery.  "Jess,  now,  she's  one  of  your  hoity-toity 
kind — flare  up  and  whirl  around  like  a  wheel  on  a 
tree  in  the  Fourth  of  July  fireworks." 

"  She's  head  and  shoulders  above  all  the  other 
Lawtons  there  ever  was  or  ever  will  be,  and  don't 
you  forget  it  !  "  declared  the  loyal  Lucinda,  with 
fervor. 

"  That's  what  I  say  always,"  assented  Ben.  "  Only 
— I  thought  you  said  you  didn't  think  she  was  quite 
right  in  doing  what  she's  going  to  do." 

"  It's  right  enough  ;  only  she  was  happy  here,  and 
this'll  make  her  miserable  again — though,  of  course, 
she  was  always  letting  her  mind  run  on  it,  and  per 
haps  she'll  enjoy  having  it  with  her — only  the  girls 
may  talk — and — 

Lucinda  let  her  sentence  die  off  unfinished  in  a 
rattle  of  knives  and  spoons  in  the  dish-pan.  Her 
mind  was  sorely  perplexed. 

"  Well,  'Cindy,"  said  Ben,  in  the  frankness  of  de 
spair,  "  I'm  dot-rotted  if  I  know  what  you  are  talking 
about."  He  grew  pathetic  as  he  went  on :  "  I'm 
your  father  and  I'm  her  father,  and  there  ain't  neither 
of  you  got  a  better  friend  on  earth  than  I  be  ;  but 
you  never  tell  me  anything,  any  more'n  as  if  I  was  a 
last  year's  bird's-nest." 

Lucinda's  reserve  yielded  to  this  appeal.  "Well, 
dad,"  she  said,  with  unwonted  graciousness  of  tone, 
"  Jess  has  gone  to  Tecumseh  to  bring  back — to 
bring  her  little  boy.  She  hasn't  told  me  so,  but  I 
know  it." 

The  father  nodded   his   head   in   comprehension, 


A    Vehement  Resolve.  317 

and  said  nothing.  He  had  vaguely  known  of  the 
existence  of  the  child,  and  he  saw  more  or  less  clearly 
the  reason  for  this  present  step.  The  shame  and 
sorrow  which  were  fastened  upon  his  family  through 
this  grandson  whom  he  had  never  seen,  and  never 
spoken  of  above  a  whisper,  seemed  to  rankle  in  his 
heart  with  a  new  pain  of  mingled  bitterness  and 
compassion. 

He  mechanically  took  out  his  pipe,  filled  it  from 
loose  tobacco  in  his  pocket,  and  struck  a  match  to 
light  it.  Then  he  recalled  that  the  absent  daughter 
objected  to  his  smoking  in  the  house,  on  account  of 
the  wares  in  her  shop,  and  let  the  flame  burn  itself 
out  in  the  coal-scuttle.  A  whimsical  query  as  to 
whether  this  calamitous  boy  had  also  been  named 
Benjamin  Franklin  crossed  his  confused  mind,  and 
then  it  perversely  raised  the  question  whether  the 
child,  if  so  named,  would  be  a  "  hustler "  or  not. 
Ben  leaned  heavily  against  the  door-sill,  and  surren 
dered  himself  to  humiliation. 

"  What  I  don't  understand,"  he  heard  Lucinda 
saying  after  a  time,  "  is  why  she  took  this  spurt  all 
of  a  sudden." 

"  It's  all  on  account  of  that  Gawd-damned  Hod 
Boyce  !  "  groaned  Ben. 

"  Yes  ;  you  told  her  something  about  him.  What 
was  it?" 

"  Only  that  they  all  say  that  he's  going  to  marry 
that  big  Minster  girl — the  black-eyed  one." 

Lucinda  turned  away  from  the  sink,  threw  down 
her  dish-cloth  with  a  thud,  and  put  her  arms  akimbo 


318  The  Lawton  GirL 

and  her  shoulders  well  back.  Watching  her,  Ben 
felt  that  somehow  this  girl,  too,  took  after  her  grand 
father  rather  than  him. 

"  Oh,  is  he  !  "  she  said,  her  voice  high-pitched  and 
vehement.  "  I  guess  we  II  have  something  to  say 
about  that  '  " 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

A   VISITATION   OF   ANGELS. 

REUBEN  TRACY  waited  in  his  office  next  day  for 
the  visit  of  the  milliner,  but,  to  tell  the  truth,  de 
voted  very  little  thought  to  wondering  about  her 
errand. 

The  whole  summer  and  autumn,  as  he  sat  now  and 
smoked  in  meditation  upon  them,  seemed  to  have 
been  an  utterly  wasted  period  in  his  life.  He  had 
done  nothing  worth  recalling.  His  mind  had  not 
even  evolved  good  ideas.  Through  all  the  interval 
which  lay  between  this  November  day  and  that  after 
noon  in  March,  when  he  had  been  for  the  only  time 
inside  the  Minster  house,  one  solitary  set  thought 
had  possessed  his  mind.  Long  ago  it  had  formulated 
itself  in  his  brain  ;  found  its  way  to  the  silent,  spir 
itual  tongue  with  which  we  speak  to  ourselves.  He 
loved  Kate  Minster,  and  had  had  room  for  no  other 
feeling  all  these  months. 

At  first,  when  this  thought  was  still  new  to  him, 
he  had  hugged  it  to  his  heart  with  delight.  Now  the 
melancholy  days  indeed  were  come,  and  he  had  only 
suffering  and  disquiet  from  it.  She  had  never  even 
answered  his  letter  proffering  assistance.  She  was 
as  far  away  from  him,  as  coldly  unattainable,  as  the 


320  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

north  star.  It  made  him  wretched  to  muse  upon 
her  beauty  and  charm  ;  his  heart  was  weary  with 
hopeless  longing  for  her  friendship — yet  he  was 
powerless  to  command  either  mind  or  heart.  They 
clung  to  her  with  painful  persistency  ;  they  kept  her 
image  before  him,  whispered  her  name  in  his  ear, 
filled  all  his  dreams  with  her  fair  presence,  to  make 
each  wakening  a  fresh  grief. 

In  his  revolt  against  this  weakness,  Reuben  had 
burned  the  little  scented  note  for  which  so  reveren 
tial  a  treasure-box  had  been  made  in  his  desk.  But 
this  was  of  no  avail.  He  could  never  enter  that 
small  inner  room  where  he  now  sat  without  glancing 
at  the  drawer  which  had  once  been  consecrated  to 
the  letter. 

It  was  humiliating  that  he  should  prove  to  have 
so  little  sense  and  strength.  He  bit  his  cigar  fiercely 
with  annoyance  when  this  aspect  of  the  case  rose 
before  him.  .If  love  meant  anything,  it  meant  a 
mutual  sentiment.  By  all  the  lights  of  philosophy, 
it  was  not  possible  to  love  a  person  who  did  not 
return  that  love.  This  he  said  to  himself  over  and 
over  again,  but  the  argument  was  not  helpful.  Still 
his  mind  remained  perversely  full  of  Kate  Minster. 

During  all  this  time  he  had  taken  no  step  to  probe 
the  business  which  had  formed  the  topic  of  that 
single  disagreeable  talk  with  his  partner  in  the  pre 
ceding  March.  Miss  Minster's  failure  to  answer  his 
letter  had  deeply  wounded  his  pride,  and  had  put  it 
out  of  the  question  that  he  should  seem  to  meddle 
in  her  affairs.  He  had  never  mentioned  the  subject 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  321 

again  to  Horace.  The  two  young  men  had  gone 
through  the  summer  and  autumn  under  the  same 
office  roof,  engaged  very  often  upon  the  same  busi 
ness,  but  with  mutual  formality  and  personal  reserve. 
No  controversy  had  arisen  between  them,  but  Reu 
ben  was  conscious  now  that  they  had  ceased  to  be 
friends,  as  men  understand  the  term,  for  along  time. 

For  his  own  part,  his  dislike  for  his  partner  had 
grown  so  deep  and  strong  that  he  felt  doubly  bound 
to  guard  himself  against  showing  it.  It  was  apparent 
to  the  most  superficial  introspection  that  a  good  deal 
of  his  aversion  to  Horace  arose  from  the  fact  that  he 
was  on  friendly  terms  with  the  Minsters,  and  could 
see  Miss  Kate  every  day.  He  never  looked  at  his 
partner  without  remembering  this,  and  extracting 
unhappiness  from  the  thought.  But  he  realized  that 
this  was  all  the  more  reason  why  he  should  not  yield 
to  his  feelings.  Both  his  pride  and  his  sense  of  fair 
ness  restrained  him  from  quarrelling  with  Horace  on 
grounds  of  that  sort. 

But  the  events  of  the  last  day  or  two  had  opened 
afresh  the  former  dilemma  about  a  rupture  over  the 
Minster  works  business.  Since  Schuyler  Tenney 
had  blossomed  forth  as  the  visible  head  of  the  roll 
ing-mills,  Reuben  had,  in  spite  of  his  pique  and  of  his 
resolution  not  to  be  betrayed  into  meddling,  kept 
a  close  watch  upon  events  connected  with  the  two 
great  iron  manufacturing  establishments.  He  had 
practically  learned  next  to  nothing,  but  he  was  none 
the  less  convinced  that  a  swindle  underlay  what  was 
going  on. 

21 


322  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

It  was  with  this  same  conviction  that  he  now 
strove  to  understand  the  shutting-down  of  the  fur- 
naces  and  ore-fields  owned  by  the  Minsters,  and  the 
threatened  lockout  in  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing 
Company's  mills.  But  it  was  very  difficult  to  see 
where  dishonesty  could  come  in.  The  furnaces  and 
ore-supply  had  been  stopped  by  an  order  of  the  pig- 
iron  trust,  but  of  course  the  owners  would  be  amply 
compensated  for  that.  The  other  company's  resolve 
to  reduce  wages  meant,  equally  of  course,  a  desire 
to  make  up  on  the  pay-list  the  loss  entailed  by  the 
closing  of  the  furnaces,  which  compelled  it  to  secure 
its  raw  material  elsewhere.  Taken  by  themselves, 
each  transaction  was  intelligible.  But  considered 
together,  and  as  both  advised  by  the  same  men,  they 
seemed  strangely  in  conflict.  What  possible  reason 
could  the  Thessaly  Company,  for  example,  have  for 
urging  Mrs.  Minster  to  enter  a  trust,  the  chief  pur 
pose  of  which  was  to  raise  the  price  of  pig-iron  which 
they  themselves  bought  almost  entirely?  The  prob 
lem  puzzled  Reuben.  He  racked  his  brain  in  futile 
search  for  the  missing  clew  to  this  financial  paradox. 
Evidently  there  was  such  a  clew  somewhere  ;  an  ini 
tial  fact  which  would  explain  the  whole  mystery,  if 
only  it  could  be  got  at.  He  had  for  his  own  satis 
faction  collected  some  figures  about  the  Minster 
business,  partly  exact,  partly  estimated,  and  he  had 
worked  laboriously  over  these  in  the  effort  to  dis 
cover  the  false  quantity  which  he  felt  sure  was 
somewhere  concealed.  But  thus  far  his  work  had 
been  in  vain. 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  323 

Just  now  a  strange  idea  for  the  moment  fascinated 
his  inclination.  It  was  nothing  else  than  the  thought 
of  putting  his  pride  in  his  pocket — of  going  to  Miss 
Minster  and  saying  frankly:  "I  believe  you  are 
being  robbed.  In  Heaven's  name,  give  me  a  chance 
to  find  out,  and  to  protect  you  if  I  am  right !  I 
shall  ask  no  reward.  I  shall  not  even  ask  ever  to 
see  you  again,  once  the  rescue  is  achieved.  But 
oh  !  do  not  send  me  away  until  then — I  pray  you 
that !  " 

While  the  wild  project  urged  itself  upon  his  mind 
the  man  himself  seemed  able  to  stand  apart  and 
watch  this  battle  of  his  own  thoughts  and  longings, 
like  an  outside  observer.  He  realized  that  the  pas 
sion  he  had  nursed  so  long  in  silence  had  affected 
his  mental  balance.  He  was  conscious  of  surprise, 
almost  of  a  hysterical  kind  of  amusement,  that 
Reuben  Tracy  should  be  so  altered  as  to  think 
twice  about  such  a  proceeding.  Then  he  fell  to 
deploring  and  angrily  reviling  the  change  that  had 
come  over  him ;  and  lo  !  all  at  once  he  found  him 
self  strangely  glad  of  the  change,  and  was  stretching 
forth  his  arms  in  a  fantasy  of  yearning  toward  a 
dream  figure  in  creamy-white  robes,  girdled  with  a 
silken  cord,  and  was  crying  out  in  his  soul,  "  I  love 
you  !  " 

The  vision  faded  away  in  an  instant  as  there  came 
the  sound  of  rapping  at  the  outer  door.  Reuben 
rose  to  his  feet,  his  brain  still  bewildered  by  the 
sun-like  brilliancy  of  the  picture  which  had  been 
burned  into  it,  and  confusedly  collected  his  thoughts 


324  The  Lawton  Girl. 

as  he  walked  across  the  larger  room.  His  partner 
had  been  out  of  town  some  days,  and  he  had  sent 
the  office-boy  home,  in  order  that  the  Lawton  girl 
might  be  able  to  talk  in  freedom.  The  knocking 
was  that  of  a  woman's  hand.  Evidently  it  was 
Jessica,  who  had  come  an  hour  or  so  earlier  than 
she  had  appointed.  He  wondered  vaguely  what 
her  errand  might  be,  as  he  opened  the  door. 

In  the  dingy  hallway  stood  two  figures  instead  of 
one,  both  thickly  clad  and  half  veiled.  The  waning 
light  of  late  afternoon  did  not  enable  him  to  recog 
nize  his  visitors  with  any  certainty.  The  smaller 
lady  of  the  two  might  be  Jessica — the  one  who 
stood  farthest  away.  He  had  almost  resolved  that 
it  was,  in  this  moment  of  mental  dubiety,  when  the 
other,  putting  out  her  gloved  hand,  said  to  him  : 

"  I  am  afraid  you  don't  remember  me,  it  is  so  long 
since  we  met.  This  is  my  sister,  Mr.  Tracy — Miss 
Ethel  Minster." 

The  door-knob  creaked  in  Reuben's  hand  as  he 
pressed  upon  it  for  support,  and  there  were  eccen 
tric  flashes  of  light  before  his  eyes. 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  glad  !  "  was  what  he  said.  "  Do 
come  in — do  come  in."  He  led  the  way  into  the 
office  with  a  dazed  sense  of  heading  a  triumphal  pro 
cession,  and  then  stopped  in  the  centre  of  the  room, 
suddenly  remembering  that  he  had  not  shaken  hands. 
Was  it  too  late  now?  To  give  himself  time  to 
think,  he  lighted  the  gas  in  both  offices  and  closed 
all  the  shutters. 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  glad  !  "  he  repeated,  as  he  turned  to 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  325 

the  two  ladies.  The  radiant  smile  on  his  face  bore 
out  his  words.  "  I  am  afraid  the  little  room — my 
own  place — is  full  of  cigar-smoke.  Let  me  see 
about  the  fire  here."  He  shook  the  grate  vehe 
mently,  and  poked  down  the  coals  through  one  of 
the  upper  windows.  "  Perhaps  it  will  be  warm 
enough  here.  Let  me  bring  some  chairs."  He 
bustled  into  the  inner  room,  and  pushed  out  his 
own  revolving  desk-chair,  and  drew  up  two  others 
from  different  ends  of  the  office.  The  easiest  chair 
of  all,  which  was  at  Horace's  table,  he  did  not  touch. 
Then,  when  his  two  visitors  had  taken  seats,  he 
beamed  down  upon  them  once  more,  and  said  for 
the  third  time  : 

"  I  really  am  delighted!  " 

Miss  Kate  put  up  her  short  veil  with  a  frank 
gesture.  The  unaffected  pleasure  which  shone  in 
Reuben's  face  and  radiated  from  his  manner  was 
something  more  exuberant  than  she  had  expected, 
but  it  was  grateful  to  her,  and  she  and  her  sister 
both  smiled  in  response. 

"  I  have  an  apology  to  make  first  of  all,  Mr. 
Tracy,"  she  said,  and  her  voice  was  the  music  of 
the  seraphim  to  his  senses.  "  I  don't  think — I  am 
afraid  I  never  answered  your  kind  letter  last  spring. 
It  is  a  bad  habit  of  mine ;  I  am  the  worst  corre 
spondent  in  the  world.  And  then  we  went  away  so 
soon  afterward." 

"  I  beg  that  you  won't  mention  it,"  said  Reuben  ; 
and  indeed  it  seemed  to  him  to  be  a  trivial  thing 
now — not  worth  a  thought,  much  less  a  word.  He 


326  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

had  taken  a  chair  also,  and  was  at  once  intoxicated 
with  the  rapture  of  looking  Kate  in  the  face  thus 
again,  and  nervous  lest  the  room  was  not  warm 
enough. 

"  Won't  you  loosen  your  wraps  ?  "  he  asked,  with 
solicitude.  "  I  am  afraid  you  won't  feel  them  when 
you  go  out."  It  was  an  old  formula  which  he  had 
heard  his  mother  use  with  callers  at  the  farm,  but 
which  he  himself  had  never  uttered  before  in  his 
life.  But  then  he  had  never  before  been  pervaded 
with  such  a  tender  anxiety  for  the  small  comforts  of 
visitors. 

Miss  Kate  opened  the  throat  of  her  fur  coat. 
"  We  sha'n't  stay  long,"  she  said.  "  We  must  be 
home  to  dinner."  She  paused  for  a  moment  and 
then  asked  :  "  Is  there  any  likelihood  of  our  seeing 
your  partner,  Mr.  Boyce,  here  to-day  ?  " 

Reuben's  face  fell  on  the  instant.  Alas,  poor 
fool,  he  thought,  to  imagine  there  were  angels' 
visits  for  you  ! 

"  No,"  he  answered,  gloomily.  "  I  am  afraid  not. 
He  is  out  of  town." 

"  Oh,  we  didn't  want  to  see  him,"  put  in  Miss 
Ethel.  "  Quite  the  contrary." 

Reuben's  countenance  recovered  all  its  luminous 
radiance.  He  stole  a  glance  at  this  younger  girl's 
face,  and  felt  that  he  almost  loved  her  too. 

"  No,"  Miss  Kate  went  on,  "  in  fact,  we  took  the 
opportunity  of  his  being  away  to  come  and  try  to 
see  you  alone.  We  are  dreadfully  anxious,  Mr. 
Tracy,  about  the  way  things  are  going  on." 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  327 

The  lawyer  could  not  restrain  a  comprehending 
nod  of  the  head,  but  he  did  not  speak. 

"  We  do  not  understand  at  all  what  is  being  done," 
proceeded  Kate.  "  There  is  nobody  to  explain  things 
to  us  except  the  men  who  are  doing  those  things, 
and  it  seems  to  us  that  they  tell  us  just  what  they 
like.  We  may  be  doing  them  an  injustice,  but  we 
are  very  nervous  about  a  good  many  matters.  That 
is  why  we  came  to  you." 

Reuben  bowed  again.  There  was  an  instant's 
pause,  and  then  he  opened  one  of  the  little  mica 
doors  in  the  stove.  "  I'm  afraid  this  isn't  going  to 
burn  up,"  he  said.  "  If  you  don't  mind  smoke,  the 
other  room  is  much  warmer." 

It  was  not  until  he  had  safely  bestowed  his  pre 
cious  visitors  in  the  cosier  room,  and  persuaded  them 
to  loosen  all  their  furs,  that  his  mind  was  really  at 
ease.  "  Now,"  he  remarked,  with  a  smile  of  relief, 
"now  go  ahead.  Tell  me  everything." 

"  We  have  this  difficulty,"  said  Kate,  hesitatingly; 
"  when  I  spoke  to  you  before,  you  felt  that  you 
couldn't  act  in  the  matter,  or  learn  things,  or  advise 
us,  on  account  of  the  partnership.  And  as  that 
still  exists — why —  She  broke  off  with  an  inquir 
ing  sigh. 

"  My  dear  Miss  Minster,"  Reuben  answered,  in  a 
voice  so  firm  and  full  of  force  that  it  bore  away  in 
front  of  it  all  possibility  of  suspecting  that  he  was 
too  bold,  "  when  I  left  you  I  wanted  to  tell  you, 
when  I  wrote  to  you  I  tried  to  have  you  understand, 
that  if  there  arose  a  question  of  honestly  helping 


328  The  Lawton  Girl. 

you,  of  protecting  you,  and  the  partnership  stood 
between  me  and  that  act  of  honorable  service,  I 
would  crush  the  partnership  like  an  eggshell,  and  put 
all  my  powers  at  your  disposal.  But  I  am  afraid  you 
did  not  understand." 

The  two  girls  looked  at  each  other,  and  then  at  the 
strong  face  before  them,  with  the  focussed  light  of 
the  argand  burner  upon  it. 

"  No,"  said  Kate,  "  I  am  afraid  we  didn't." 

"  And  so  I  say  to  you  now,"  pursued  Reuben, 
with  a  sense  of  exultation  in  the  resolute  words  as 
they  sounded  on  his  ear,  "  I  will  not  allow  any  pro 
fessional  chimeras  to  bind  me  to  inactivity,  to  acquies 
cence,  if  a  wrong  is  being  done  to  you.  And  more, 
I  will  do  all  that  lies  in  my  power  to  help  you  under 
stand  the  whole  situation.  And  if,  when  it  is  all 
mapped  out  before  us,  you  need  my  assistance  to  set 
crooked  things  straight,  why,  with  all  my  heart  you 
shall  have  it,  and  the  partnership  shall  go  out  of  the 
window." 

"  If  you  had  said  that  at  the  beginning,"  sighed 
Kate. 

"Ah,  then  I  did  not  know  what  I  know  now!" 
answered  Reuben,  holding  her  eyes  with  his,  while 
the  light  on  his  face  grew  ruddier. 

"Well,  then,  this  is  what  I  can  tell  you,"  said  the 
elder  girl,  "and  I  am  to  tell  it  to  you  as  our  lawyer, 
am  I  not — our  lawyer  in  the  sense  that  Mr.  Boyce  is 
mamma's  lawyer?" 

Reuben  bowed,  and  settled  himself  in  his  chair  to 
listen.  It  was  a  long  recital,  broken  now  by  sugges- 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  329 

tions  from  Ethel,  now  by  questions  from  the  lawyer. 
From  time  to  time  he  made  notes  on  the  blotter 
before  him,  and  when  the  narrative  was  finished  he 
spent  some  moments  in  consulting  these,  and  com 
bining  them  with  figures  from  another  paper,  in  new 
columns.  Then  he  said,  speaking  slowly  and  with 
deliberation  : 

"  This  I  take  to  be  the  situation  :  You  are  million- 
naires,  and  are  in  a  strait  for  money.  When  I  say 
'  you'  I  speak  of  your  mother  and  yourselves  as  one. 
Your  income,  which  formerly  gave  you  a  surplus  of 
sixty  thousand  or  seventy  thousand  dollars  a  year  for 
new  investments,  is  all  at  once  not  large  enough  to 
pay  the  interest  on  your  debts,  let  alone  your  house 
hold  and  personal  expenses.  First,  what  has  become 
of  this  income  ?  It  came  from  three  sources — the 
furnaces,  the  telegraph  stock,  and  a  group  of  minor 
properties.  These  furnaces  and  iron-mines,  which 
were  all  your  own  until  you  were  persuaded  to  put  a 
mortgage  on  them,  have  been  closed  by  the  orders 
of  outsiders  with  whom  you  were  persuaded  to  com 
bine.  Exit  your  income  from  that  source.  Tele 
graph  competition  has  cut  down  your  earnings  from 
the  Northern  Union  stock  to  next  to  nothing.  No 
doubt  we  shall  find  that  your  income  from  the  other 
properties  has  been  absorbed  in  salaries  voted  to 
themselves  by  the  men  into  whose  hands  you  have 
fallen.  That  is  a  very  old  trick,  and  I  shall  be  sur 
prised  if  it  does  not  turn  up  here.  In  the  second 
place,  you  are  heavily  in  debt.  On  the  1st  of  Janu 
ary  next,  you  must  borrow  money,  apparently,  to  pay 


33O  The  Lawton  Girl. 

the  interest  on  this  debt.  What  makes  it  the  harder 
is  that  you  have  not,  as  far  as  I  can  discover,  had 
any  value  received  whatever  for  this  debt.  In  other 
words,  you  are  being  swindled  out  of  something  like 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  year,  and  not  even 
such  a  property  as  your  father  left  can  stand  that 
very  long.  I  should  say  it  was  high  time  you  came 
to  somebody  for  advice." 

Before  this  terribly  lucid  statement  the  two  girls 
sat  aghast. 

It  was  Ethel  who  first  found  something  to  say. 
"  We  never  dreamed  of  this,  Mr.  Tracy,"  she  said, 
breathlessly.  "  Our  idea  in  coming,  what  we  thought 
of  most,  was  the  poor  people  being  thrown  out  of 
work  in  the  winter,  like  this,  and  it  being  in  some 
way,  our  fault !  " 

"  People  think  it  is  our  fault,"  interposed  Kate. 
"  Only  to-day,  as  we  were  driving  here,  there  were 
some  men  standing  on  the  corner,  and  one  of  them 
called  out  a  very  cruel  thing  about  us,  as  if  we  had 
personally  injured  him.  But  what  you  tell  me — is 
it  really  as  bad  as  that?  " 

"  I  am  afraid  it  is  quite  as  bad  as  I  have  pictured 
it." 

"  And  what  is  to  be  done?  There  must  be  some 
way  to  stop  it,"  said  Kate. 

"  You  will  put  these  men  in  prison  the  first  thing, 
won't  you,  Mr.  Tracy?"  asked  Ethel.  "And  oh,  I 
forgot!  Who  are  the  men  who  are  robbing  us?" 

Reuben  smiled  gravely,  and  ignored  the  latter 
question.  "  There  are  a  good  many  first  things  to 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  331 

do,"  he  said.  "  I  must  think  it  all  over  very  care 
fully  before  any  step  is  taken.  But  the  very  begin 
ning  will  be,  I  think,  for  you  both  to  revoke  the 
power  of  attorney  your  mother  holds  for  you,  and 
to  obtain  a  statement  of  her  management  of  the  trus 
teeship  over  your  property." 

"  She  will  refuse  it  plump !  You  don't  know 
mamma/'  said  Ethel. 

"  She  couldn't  refuse  if  the  demand  were  made 
regularly,  could  she,  Mr.  Tracy  ?  "  asked  Kate.  He 
shook  his  head,  and  she  went  on :  "  But  it  seems 
dreadful  not  to  act  with  mamma  in  the  matter. 
Just  think  what  a  situation  it  will  be,  to  bring  our 
lawyer  up  to  fight  her  lawyer  !  It  sounds  unnatural, 
doesn't  it  ?  Don't  you  think,  Mr.  Tracy,  if  you 
were  to  speak  to  her  now — 

"  No,  that  could  hardly  be,  unless  she  asked  me," 
returned  the  lawyer. 

"Well,  then,  if  I  told  her  all  you  said,  or  you 
wrote  it  out  for  me  to  show  her." 

"  No,  nor  that  either,"  said  Reuben.  "  To  speak 
frankly,  Miss  Minster,  your  mother  is  perhaps  the 
most  difficult  and  dangerous  element  in  the  whole 
problem.  I  hope  you  won't  be  offended — but  that 
any  woman  in  her  senses  could  have  done  what  she 
seems  to  have  done,  is  almost  incredible." 

"  Poor  mamma  !  "  commented  Ethel.  "  She  never 
would  listen  to  advice." 

"  Unfortunately,  that  is  just  what  she  has  done," 
broke  in  Kate.  "  Mr.  Tracy,  tell  me  candidly,  is  it 
possible  that  the  man  who  advised  her  to  do  these 


332  The  Lawton  Girl. 

things — or  rather  the  two  men,  both  lawyers,  who 
advised  her — could  have  done  so  honestly  ? " 

"  I  should  say  it  was  impossible,"  answered  Reu 
ben,  after  a  pause. 

Again  the  two  girls  exchanged  glances,  and  then 
Kate,  looking  at  her  watch,  rose  to  her  feet.  "  We 
are  already  late,  Mr.  Tracy,"  she  said,  offering  him 
her  hand,  and  unconsciously  allowing  him  to  hold  it 
in  his' own  as  she  went  on  :  "We  are  both  deeply 
indebted  to  you.  We  want  you — oh,  so  much  ! — 
to  help  us.  We  will  do  everything  you  say ;  we 
will  put  ourselves  completely  in  your  hands,  won't 
we,  Ethel?" 

The  younger  sister  said  "  Yes,  indeed  !  "  and  then 
smiled  as  she  furtively  glanced  up  into  Kate's  face 
and  thence  downward  to  her  hand.  Kate  herself 
with  a  flush  and  murmur  of  confusion  withdrew  the 
fingers  which  the  lawyer  still  held. 

"  Then  you  must  begin,"  he  said,  not  striving  very 
hard  to  conceal  the  delight  he  had  had  from  that 
stolen  custody  of  the  gloved  hand,  "  by  resolving 
not  to  say  a  word  to  anybody — least  of  all  to  your 
mother — about  having  consulted  me.  You  must 
realize  that  we  have  to  deal  with  criminals — it  is  a 
harsh  word,  I  know,  but  there  can  be  no  other — and 
that  to  give  them  warning  before  our  plans  are  laid 
would  be  a  folly  almost  amounting  to  crime  itself. 
If  I  may,  Miss  Kate" — there  was  a  little  gulp  in  his 
throat  as  he  safely  passed  this  perilous  first  use  of 
the  familiar  name — "  I  will  write  to  you  to-morrow, 
outlining  my  suggestions  in  detail,  telling  you  what 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  333 

to  do,  perhaps  something  of  what  I  am  going 
to  do,  and  naming  a  time — subject,  of  course,  to 
your  convenience — when  we  would  better  meet 
again." 

Thus,  after  some  further  words  on  the  same  lines, 
the  interview  ended.  Reuben  went  to  the  door  with 
them,  and  would  have  descended  to  the  street  to 
bear  them  company,  but  they  begged  him  not 
to  expose  himself  to  the  cold,  and  so,  with  gra 
cious  adieus,  left  him  in  his  office  •  and  went 
down  the  narrow,  unlighted  staircase,  picking  their 
way. 

On  the  landing,  where  some  faint  reflection  of 
the  starlight  and  gas-light  outside  filtered  through 
the  musty  atmosphere,  Kate  paused  a  moment  to 
gather  the  weaker  form  of  her  sister  protectingly 
close  to  her. 

"  Are  you  utterly  tired  out,  pet  ? "  she  asked. 
"I'm  afraid  it's  been  too  much  for  you." 

"  Oh,  no,"  said  Ethel.  "  Only — yes,  I  am  tired  of 
one  thing — of  your  slowness  of  perception.  Why, 
child  alive,  Mr.  Tracy  has  been  just  burning  to  take 
up  our  cause  ever  since  he  first  saw  you.  You 
thought  he  was  indifferent,  and  all  the  while  he  was 
over  head  and  ears  in  love  with  you  !  I  watched 
him  every  moment,  and  it  was  written  all  over  his 
face  ;  and  you  never  saw  it !  " 

The  answering  voice  fell  with  a  caressing  imi 
tation  of  reproof  upon  the  darkness  :  "  You  silly 
puss,  you  think  everybody  is  in  love  with  me!  "  it 
said. 


334  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Then  the  two  young  ladies,  furred  and  tippeted, 
emerged  upon  the  sidewalk,  stepped  into  their 
carriage,  and  were  whirled  off  homeward  under  the 
starlight. 

A  few  seconds  later,  two  other  figures,  a  woman 
and  a  child,  also  emerged  from  this  same  stairway, 
and,  there  being  no  coachman  in  waiting  for  them, 
started  on  foot  down  the  street.  The  woman  was 
Jessica  Lawton,  and  she  walked  wearily  with  droop 
ing  head  and  shoulders,  never  once  looking  at  the 
little  boy  whose  hand  she  held,  and  who  followed 
her  in  wondering  patience. 

She  had  stood  in  the  stairway,  drawn  up  against 
the  wall  to  let  these  descending  ladies  pass.  She 
had  heard  all  they  said,  and  had  on  the  instant  rec 
ognized  Kate  Minster's  voice.  For  a  moment,  in 
this  darkness  suddenly  illumined  by  Ethel's  words, 
she  had  reflected.  Then  she,  too,  had  turned  and 
come  down  the  stairs  again.  It  seemed  best,  under 
these  new  circumstances,  not  to  see  Reuben  Tracy  just 
now.  And  as  she  slowly  walked  home,  she  almost 
forgot  the  existence  of  the  little  boy,  so  deeply  was 
her  mind  engaged  with  what  she  had  heard. 

As  for  Reuben,  the  roseate  dreams  had  all  come 
back.  From  the  drear  mournfulness  of  chill  No 
vember  his  heart  had  leaped,  by  a  fairy  transition, 
straight  into  the  bowers  of  June,  where  birds  sang 
and  fountains  plashed,  and  beauty  and  happiness 
were  the  only  law.  It  would  be  time  enough  to-mor 
row  to  think  about  this  great  struggle  with  cunning 
scoundrels  for  the  rescue  of  a  princely  fortune,  which 


A    Visitation  of  Angels.  335 

opened  before  him.     This  evening  his  mind  should 
dwell  upon  nothing  but  thoughts  of  her  ! 

And  so  it  happened  that  an  hour  later,  when  he 
decided  to  lock  up  the  office  and  go  over  to  supper, 
he  had  never  once  remembered  that  the  Lawton 
girl's  appointment  remained  unkept. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

OVERWHELMING   DISCOMFITURE. 

MR.  HORACE  BOYCE  returned  to  Thessaly  the 
next  morning  and  drove  at  once  to  his  father's 
house.  There,  after  a  longer  and  more  luxurious 
bath  than  usual,  he  breakfasted  at  his  leisure,  and 
then  shaved  and  dressed  himself  with  great  care. 
He  had  brought  some  new  clothes  from  New  York, 
and  as  he  put  them  on  he  did  not  regret  the  long 
detour  to  the  metropolis,  both  in  going  to  and  com 
ing  from  Pittsburg,  which  had  been  made  in  order  to 
secure  them.  The  frock  coat  was  peculiarly  to  his 
liking.  No  noble  dandy  in  all  the  West  End  of 
London  owed  his  tailor  for  a  more  perfectly  fitting 
garment.  It  was  not  easy  to  decide  as  to  the  neck 
wear  which  should  best  set  off  the  admirable  upper 
lines  of  this  coat,  but  at  last  he  settled  on  a  lustre 
less,  fine-ribbed  tie  of  white  silk,  into  which  he  set  a 
beautiful  moonstone  pin  that  Miss  Kate  had  once 
praised.  Decidedly,  the  ensemble  left  nothing  to  be 
desired. 

Horace,  having  completely  satisfied  himself,  took 
off  the  coat  again,  went  down-stairs  in  his  velveteen 
lounging-jacket,  and  sought  out  his  father  in  the 
library,  which  served  as  a  smoking-room  for  the  two 
men. 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  337 

The  General  sat  in  one  chair,  with  his  feet  com 
fortably  disposed  on  another,  and  with  a  cup  of  cof 
fee  on  still  a  third  at  his  side.  He  was  reading  that 
morning's  Thessaly  Banner,  through  passing  clouds 
of  cigar-smoke.  His  brow  was  troubled. 

"  Hello,  you're  back,  are  you  ?  "  was  his  greeting  to 
his  son.  "  I  see  the  whole  crowd  of  workmen  in 
your  rolling-mills  decided  last  night  not  to  submit  to 
the  new  scale  ;  unanimous,  the  paper  says.  Seen  it  ?  " 

"  No,  but  I  guessed  they  would,"  said  Horace, 
nonchalantly.  "  They  can  all  be  damned." 

The  General  turned  over  his  paper.  "  There's  an. 
editorial,"  he  went  on,  "  taking  the  workmen's  side, 
out  and  out.  Says  there's  something  very  mysteri 
ous  about  the  whole  business.  Winds  up  with  a 
hint  that  steps  will  be  taken  to  test  the  legality  of 
the  trust,  and  probe  the  conspiracy  that  underlies 
it.  Those  are  the  words — '  probe  the  conspiracy.' 
Evidently,  you're  going  to  have  John  Fairchild  in 
your  wool.  He's  a  good  fighter,  once  you  get  him 
stirred  up." 

"  He  can  be  damned,  too,"  said  Horace,  taking  a 
chair  and  lighting  a  cigar.  "These  free-trade  editors 
make  a  lot  of  noise,  but  they  don't  do  anything  else. 
They're  merely  blue-bottle  flies  on  a  window-pane — 
a  deuce  of  a  nuisance  to  nervous  people,  that's  all. 
I'm  not  nervous,  myself." 

The  General  smiled  with  good-humored  sarcasm 
at  his  offspring.  "  Seems  to  me  it  wasn't  so  long 
ago  that  you  were  tarred  with  the  same  brush  your 
self,"  he  commented. 

22 


338  The  La^vton  Girl. 

"  Most  fellows  are  free-traders  until  it  touches 
their  own  pockets,  or  rather  until  they  get  some 
thing  in  their  pockets  to  be  touched.  Then  they 
learn  sense,"  replied  Horace. 

"  You  can  count  them  by  thousands,"  said  the 
General.  "  But  what  of  the  other  poor  devils — the 
millions  of  consumers  who  pay  through  the  nose,  in 
ofder  to  keep  those  pockets  full,  eh  ?  They  never 
seem  to  learn  sense." 

Horace  smiled  a  little,  and  then  stretched  out  his 
limbs  in  a  comprehensive  yawn.  "  I  can't  sleep  on 
the  cars  as  well  as  I  used  to,"  he  said,  in  explana 
tion.  "  I  almost  wish  now  I'd  gone  to  bed  when  I 
got  home.  I  don't  want  to  be  sleepy  this  afternoon, 
of  all  times." 

The  General  had  returned  to  his  paper.  "  I  see 
there's  a  story  afloat  that  you  chaps  mean  to  bring 
in  French  Canadian  workmen,  when  the  other  fellows 
are  locked  out.  I  thought  there  was  a  contract  labor 
law  against  that." 

Horace  yawned  again,  and  then,  rising,  poured 
out  a  little  glassful  of  spirits  from  a  bottle  on  the 
mantel,  and  tossed  it  off.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  it's  easy 
enough  to  get  around  that.  Wendover  is  up  to  all 
those  dodges.  Besides,  I  think  they  are  already 
domiciled  in  Massachusetts." 

"  Vane  "  Boyce  laid  down  the  paper  and  took  off 
his  eye-glasses.  "  I  hope  these  fellows  haven't  got 
you  into  a  scrape,"  he  remarked,  eyeing  his  son.  "  I 
don't  more  than  half  like  this  whole  business." 

"  Don't  you  worry,"  was   Horace's  easy  response. 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  339 

"  I'll  take  good  care  of  myself.  If  it  comes  to  '  dog 
eat  dog,'  they'll  find  my  teeth  are  filed  down  to  a 
point  quite  as  sharp  as  theirs  are." 

"  Maybe  so,"  said  the  father,  doubtfully.  "  But 
that  Tenney — he's  got  eyes  in  the  back  of  his  head." 

"  My  dear  fellow,"  said  Horace,  with  a  pleasant 
air  of  patronage,  "  he's  a  mere  child  compared  with 
Wendover.  But  I'm  not  afraid  of  them  both.  I'm 
going  to  play  a  card  this  afternoon  that  will  take  the 
wind  out  of  both  their  sails.  When  that  is  done,  I'll 
be  in  a  position  to  lay  down  the  law  to  them,  and 
read  the  riot  act  too,  if  necessary." 

The  General  looked  inquiry,  and  Horace  went  on : 

"  I  want  you  to  call  for  me  at  the  office  at  three, 
and  then  we'll  go  together  to  the  Minsters.  I 
wouldn't  smoke  after  luncheon,  if  I  were  you.  I'm 
not  going  down  until  afternoon.  I'll  explain  to  you 
what  my  idea  is  as  we  walk  out  there.  You've  got 
some  'heavy  father'  business  to  do." 

Horace  lay  at  his  ease  for  a  couple  of  hours  in  the 
big  chair  his  father  had  vacated,  and  mused  upon 
the  splendor  of  his  position.  This  afternoon  he  was 
to  ask  Kate  Minster  to  be  his  wife,  and  of  the  an 
swer  he  had  no  earthly  doubt.  His  place  thus  made 
secure,  he  had  some  highly  interesting  things  to  say 
to  Wendover  and  Tenney.  He  had  fathomed  their 
plans,  he  thought,  and  could  at  the  right  moment 
turn  them  to  his  advantage.  He  had  not  paid  this 
latest  visit  to  the  iron  magnates  of  Pennsylvania  for 
nothing.  He  saw  that  Wendover  had  counted  upon 
their  postponing  all  discussion  of  the  compensation 


340  The  Lawton  Girl. 

to  be  given  the  Minsters  for  the  closing  of  their 
furnaces  until  after  January  I,  in  order  that  when 
that  date  came,  and  Mrs.  Minster  had  not  the  money 
to  pay  the  half-yearly  twelve  thousand  dollars  inter 
est  on  the  bonds,  she  would  be  compelled  to  borrow 
still  more  from  him,  and  thus  tighten  the  hold  which 
he  and  Tenney  had  on  the  Minster  property.  It 
was  a  pretty  scheme,  but  Horace  felt  that  he  could 
block  it.  For  one  thing,  he  was  certain  that  he 
could  induce  the  outside  trust  directors  to  pass  upon 
the  question  of  compensation  long  before  January. 
And  even  if  this  failed,  he  could  himself  raise  the 
money  which  Mrs.  Minster  would  need.  This  he 
would  do.  Then  he  would  turn  around  and  de 
mand  an  accounting  from  these  scoundrels  of  the 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  employed  in  buying 
the  machinery  rights,  and  levy  upon  the  plant  of  the 
Thessaly  Manufacturing  Company,  if  necessary,  to 
secure  Mrs.  Minster's  interests.  It  became  all  very 
clear  to  his  mind,  now  he  thought  it  over,  and  he 
metaphorically  snapped  his  fingers  at  Wendover  and 
Tenney  as  he  went  up-stairs  and  once  more  carefully 
dressed  himself. 

The  young  man  stopped  in  the  hall-way  as  he 
came  down  and  enjoyed  a  comprehensive  view  of 
himself  in  the  large  mirror  which  was  framed  by  the 
hat-rack.  The  frock  coat  and  the  white  effect  at 
the  neck  were  excellent.  The  heavy  fur  collar  of 
the  outer  coat  only  heightened  their  beauty,  and  the 
soft,  fawn-tinted  suede  gloves  were  quite  as  charm 
ing  in  the  contrast  they  afforded  under  the  cuffs  of 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  341 

the  same  costly  fur.  Horace  put  his  glossy  hat  just 
a  trifle  to  one  side,  and  was  too  happy  even  to  curse 
the  climate  which  made  rubbers  over  his  patent- 
leather  shoes  a  necessity. 

He  remembered  that  minute  before  the  looking- 
glass,  in  the  after-time,  as  the  culmination  of  his  up 
ward  career.  It  was  the  proudest,  most  perfectly 
contented  moment  of  his  adult  life. 

"  There  is  something  I  want  to  say  to  you  before 
you  go." 

Reuben  Tracy  stood  at  the  door  of  a  small  inner 
office,  and  looked  steadily  at  his  partner  as  he  uttered 
these  words. 

There  was  little  doing  in  the  law  in  these  few 
dead-and-alive  weeks  between  terms,  and  the  exqui 
sitely  dressed  Horace,  having  gone  through  his  let 
ters  and  signed  some  few  papers,  still  with  one  of 
his  gloves  on,  had  decided  not  to  wait  for  his  father, 
but  to  call  instead  at  the  hardware  store. 

"  I  am  in  a  bit  of  a  hurry  just  now,"  he  said,  draw 
ing  on  the  other  glove.  "  I  may  look  in  again  before 
dinner.  Won't  it  keep  till  then  ?" 

"  It  isn't  very  long,"  answered  Reuben.  "  I've 
concluded  that  the  partnership  was  a  mistake.  It  is 
open  to  either  of  us  to  terminate  it  at  will.  I  wish 
you  would  look  around,  and  let  me  know  as  soon  as 
you  see  your  way  to — to — 

"  To  getting  out,"  interposed  Horace.  In  his 
present  mood  the  idea  rather  pleased  him  than  other 
wise.  "  With  the  greatest  pleasure  in  the  world 


34-2  The  Lawton  Girl. 

You  have  not  been  alone  in  thinking  that  the  parfc 
nership  was  a  mistake,  I  can  assure  you." 

"  Then  we  understand  each  other?" 

"  Perfectly." 

"  And  you  will  be  back,  say  at — 

"  Say  at  half-past  five." 

"  Half-past  five  be  it,"  said  Reuben,  turning  back 
again  to  his  desk. 

Horace  made  his  way  across  the  muddy  high  street 
and  found  his  father,  who  smelt  rather  more  of 
tobacco  than  could  have  been  wished,  but  otherwise 
was  in  complete  readiness. 

"  By  the  way,"  remarked  the  young  man,  as  the 
two  walked  briskly  along,  "  I've  given  Tracy  notice 
that  I'm  going  to  leave  the  firm.  I  daresay  we  shall 
separate  almost  immediately.  The  business  hasn't 
been  by  any  means  up  to  my  expectations,  and, 
besides,  I  have  too  much  already  to  do  for  the  Min 
ster  estate,  and  am  by  way,  now,  of  having  a  good 
deal  more." 

"  I'm  sorry,  for  all  that,"  said  the  General. 
"  Tracy  is  a  first-rate,  honest,  straightforward  fel 
low.  It  always  did  me  good  to  feel  that  you  were 
with  him.  To  tell  you  the  truth,  my  boy,"  he  went 
on  after  a  pause,  "  I'm  damnably  uneasy  about  your 
being  so  thick  with  Tenney  and  that  gang,  and  sep 
arating  yourself  from  Tracy.  It  has  an  unsafe 
look." 

"  Tracy  is  a  tiresome  prig,"  was  Horace's  com 
ment.  "  I've  stood  him  quite  long  enough." 

The  conversation  turned  now  upon  the  object  of 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  343 

their  expedition,  and  when  this  had  been  explained 
to  the  General,  and  his  part  in  it  outlined,  he  had 
forgotten  his  forebodings  about  his  son's  future. 

That  son  himself,  as  he  strode  along,  with  his 
head  well  up  and  his  shoulders  squared,  was  physi 
cally  an  object  upon  which  the  paternal  eye  could 
look  with  entire  pride.  The  General  said  to  himself 
that  he  was  not  only  the  best-dressed,  but  the  hand 
somest  young  fellow  in  all  Dearborn  County  ;  and 
from  this  it  was  but  a  mental  flash  to  the  recollection 
that  the  Boyces  had  always  been  handsome  fellows, 
and  the  old  soldier  recalled  with  satisfaction  how 
well  he  himself  had  felt  that  he  looked  when  he  rode 
away  from  Thessaly  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  after 
the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter. 

Mrs.  Minster  came  down  alone  to  the  drawing- 
room  to  receive  her  visitors,  and  showed  by  her 
manner  some  surprise  that  the  General  accompanied 
his  son. 

"  I  rather  wanted  to  talk  with  you  about  what  you 
learned  at  Pittsburg,"  she  said,  somewhat  bluntly,  to 
Horace,  after  conversation  on  ordinary  topics  had 
begun  to  flag. 

The  General  rose  at  this.  "  Pray  let  me  go  into 
the  library  for  a  time,  I  beg  of  you,"  he  said,  in  his 
courtly,  cheery  manner.  "  I  know  the  way,  and  I 
can  amuse  myself  there  till  you  want  me  ;  that  is," 
he  added,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  "  if  you  decide 
that  you  want  me  at  all." 

Mrs.  Minster  bowed  as  the  General  went  off.  She 
did  not  quite  understand  what  this  stout,  red-faced 


344  The  Lawton  Girl. 

man  meant  by  being  wanted,  and  she  was  extremely 
anxious  to  know  all  that  her  lawyer  had  to  tell  her 
about  the  trust. 

What  he  had  to  tell  her  was  eminently  satisfactory. 
The  directors  had  postponed  the  question  of  how 
much  money  should  be  paid  for  the  shutting-down 
of  the  Minster  furnaces,  simply  because  it  was  taken 
for  granted  that  so  opulent  a  concern  could  not  be 
in  a  hurry  about  a  settlement.  He  was  sure  that  he 
could  have  the  affair  all  arranged  before  December. 
As  to  other  matters,  he  was  equally  confident.  A 
year  hence  she  would  be  in  vastly  better  condition, 
financially,  than  she  had  ever  been  before.  Under 
these  assurances  Mrs.  Minster  purred  visible  con 
tent. 

Then  Horace  began  to  introduce  the  subject 
nearest  his  heart.  The  family  had  been  excessively 
kind  to  him  during  the  summer,  he  said.  He  had 
been  privileged  to  meet  them  on  terms  of  almost 
intimacy,  both  here  and  elsewhere.  Every  day  of 
this  delightful  intercourse  had  but  strengthened  his 
original  desire.  True  to  his  word,  he  had  never 
uttered  a  syllable  of  what  lay  on  his  heart  to  Miss 
Kate,  but  he  was  not  without  confidence  that  she 
looked  upon  him  favorably.  They  had  seemed 
always  the  best  of  friends,  and  she  had  accepted 
from  him  attentions  which  must  have  shadowed 
forth  to  her,  at  least  vaguely,  the  state  of  his  mind. 
He  had  brought  his  father — in  accordance  with  what 
he  felt  to  be  the  courtesy  due  from  one  old  family  to 
another — to  formally  speak  with  her  upon  the  sub- 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  345 

ject,  if  she  desired  it,  and  then  he  himself,  if  she 
thought  it  best,  would  beg  for  an  interview  with 
Miss  Kate.  Or  did  Mrs.  Minster  think  it  preferable 
to  leave  this  latter  to  the  sweet  arbitrament  of 
chance  ? 

Horace  looked  so  well  in  his  new  clothes,  and 
talked  with  such  fluency  of  feeling,  and  moreover 
had  brought  such  comforting  intelligence  about  the 
business  troubles,  that  Mrs.  Minster  found  herself  at 
the  end  smiling  on  him  maternally,  and  murmuring 
some  sort  of  acquiescence  to  his  remarks  in  general. 

"  Then  shall  I  bring  in  my  father?"  He  asked 
the  question  eagerly,  and  rising  before  she  could 
reply,  went  swiftly  to  the  door  of  the  hall  and 
opened  it. 

Then  he  stopped  with  abruptness,  and  held  the 
door  open  with  a  hand  that  began  to  tremble  as  the 
color  left  his  face. 

A  voice  in  the  hall  was  speaking,  and  with  such 
sharply  defined  distinctness  and  high  volume  that 
each  word  reached  even  the  mother  where  she 
sat. 

"  You  may  tell  your  son,  General  Boyce,"  said  this 
voice,  "that  I  will  not  see  him.  I  am  sorry  to  have 
to  say  it  to  you,  who  have  always  been  polite  to  me, 
but  your  son  is  not  a  good  man  or  an  honest  man,  and 
I  wish  never  to  see  him  again.  With  all  my  heart  I 
wish,  too,  that  we  never  had  seen  him,  any  of  iis" 

An  indistinct  sound  of  pained  remonstrance  arose 
outside  as  the  echoes  of  this  first  voice  died  away. 
Then  followed  a  noise  of  footsteps  ascending  the 


346  The  Lawton  Girl. 

carpeted  stairs,  and  Horace's  empty,  staring  eyes 
had  a  momentary  vision  of  a  woman's  form  passing 
rapidly  upward,  away  from  him. 

Then  he  stood  face  to  face  with  his  father — a 
bleared,  swollen,  indignant  countenance  it  was  that 
thrust  itself  close  to  his — and  he  heard  his  father 
say,  huskily : 

"  I  am  going.     Let  us  get  out  of  this  house." 

Horace  mechanically  started  to  follow.  Then  he 
remembered  that  he  had  left  his  hat  behind,  and 
went  back  into  the  drawing-room  where  Mrs.  Min 
ster  sat.  The  absence  of  deep  emotion  on  her 
statuesque  face  momentarily  restored  his  own  pres 
ence  of  mind. 

"  You  have  heard  your  daughter?"  he  said,  his 
head  hanging  in  spite  of  himself,  but  his  eyes  keep 
ing  a  strenuous  scrutiny  upon  her  face. 

"  Yes :  I  don't  know  what  has  come  over  Kate, 
lately,"  remarked  Mrs.  Minster ;  "  she  always  was 
the  most  curious  girl." 

"  Curious,  indeed  !  "  He  choked  down  the  sneer 
which  tempted  him,  and  went  on  slowly :  "  You 
heard  what  she  said — that  I  was  dishonest,  wicked. 
Where  she  has  suddenly  got  this  new  view  of  me, 
doesn't  matter — at  least,  just  at  this  moment.  But 
I  surely  ought  to  ask  if  you — if  you  share  it.  Of 
course,  if  I  haven't  your  confidence,  why,  I  must  lay 
down  everything." 

"  Oh,  mercy,  no  !  You  mustn't  think  of  it,"  the 
lady  said,  with  animation.  "  I'm  sure  I  don't  know 
in  the  least  what  it  all  means.  I  never  do  know 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  347 

with  my  daughters.  They  get  all  sorts  of  crazy 
notions.  It  makes  my  head  ache  sometimes  wonder 
ing  what  they  will  do  next — Kate,  especially.  No, 
you  mustn't  mind  her.  You  really  mustn't." 

The  young  man's  manner  had  gradually  taken  on 
firmness,  as  if  under  a  coat  of  ice.  The  glance 
which  he  still  bent  upon  Mrs.  Minster  had  a  novel 
glitter  in  it  now. 

"  Then  I  am  to  remain  your  lawyer,  in  spite  of 
this,  as  if  it  hadn't  happened  ?  " 

"  Why,  bless  me,  yes  !  Why  not  ?  Girls  will  be 
girls,  I  suppose.  At  least,  that  is  the  saying.  But 
— oh,  by  all  means  !  You  must  see  me  through  this 
dreadful  trust  business,  though,  as  you  say,  it  must 
all  be  better  in  the  end  than  ever  before." 

"  Good-day,  Mrs.  Minster.  I  shall  continue,  then, 
to  hold  myself  at  your  service." 

He  spoke  with  the  same  grave  slowness,  and 
bowed  formally,  as  if  to  go. 

The  lady  rose,  and  of  her  own  volition  offered  him 
her  hand.  "  Perhaps  things  will  alter  in  her  mind. 
I  am  so  sorry!  "  she  said. 

The  young  man  permitted  himself  a  ghostly  half- 
smile.  "  It  is  only  when  I  have  thought  it  all  over 
that  I  shall  know  whether  I  am  sorry  or  not,"  he 
said,  and  bowing  again  he  left  her. 

Out  by  the  gate,  standing  on  the  gravel-path  wet 
with  November  rain  and  strewn  with  damp,  fallen 
leaves,  the  General  waited  for  him.  The  air  had 
grown  chill,  and  the  sky  was  spreading  a  canopy  for 
the  night  of  gloomy  gray  clouds.  The  two  men, 


348  The  Lawton  Girl. 

without  a  word,  fell  into  step,  and  walked  down  the 
street  together.  What  was  there  to  say? 

Horace,  striding  silently  along  with  his  teeth  tight 
set,  his  head  bowed  and  full  of  fierce  confusion  of 
thought,  and  his  eyes  angrily  fixed  on  the  nothing 
straight  ahead,  became,  all  at  once,  aware  that  his 
office-boy  was  approaching  on  the  sidewalk,  whistling 
dolefully  to  suit  the  weather,  and  carrying  his  hands 
in  his  pockets. 

"  Where  are  you  going,  Robert  ?  "  the  lawyer  de 
manded,  stopping  the  lad,  and  speaking  with  the 
aggressive  abruptness  of  a  man  longing  to  affront  all 
about  him. 

"  To  Mrs.  Minster's,"  answered  the  boy,  wonder 
ing  what  was  up,  and  confusedly  taking  his  hands 
out  of  his  pockets. 

"What  for?"  This  second  question  was  even 
more  sharply  put. 

"This  letter  from  Mr.  Tracy."  The  boy  took  a 
letter  from  the  inside  of  his  coat,  and  then  added  : 
"  I  said  Mrs.  Minster,  but  the  letter  is  for  her 
daughter.  I'm  to  give  it  to  her  herself." 

"I'll  take  charge  of  it  myself,"  said  Horace,  with 
swift  decision,  stretching  out  his  hand. 

But  another  hand  was  reached  forth  also,  and 
grasped  the  young  man's  extended  wrist  with  a 
vehement  grip. 

"  No,  by  God  !  you  won't  !  "  swore  the  General, 
his  face  purpling  with  the  rush  of  angry  blood,  and 
his  little  gray  eyes  flashing.  "  No,  sir,  you  won't  !  " 
he  repeated  ;  and  then,  bending  a  momentary  glance 


Overwhelming  Discomfiture.  349 

upon  the  boy,  he  snapped  out  :  "  Well,  you  !  don't 
stand  staring  here  !  Go  and  do  your  errand  as  you 
were  told !  " 

The  office-boy  started  with  a  run  to  obey  his  com 
mand,  and  did  not  slacken  his  pace  until  he  had  turned 
a  corner.  He  had  never  encountered  a  real  general 
in  action  before,  and  the  experience  impressed  him. 

Father  and  son  looked  in  silence  into  each  other's 
faces  for  an  instant.  Then  the  father  said,  with 
something  between  a  curse  and  a  groan : 

"  My  God  !  the  girl  was  right !  You  are  a  damned 
scoundrel !  " 

"  Well,  however  that  may  be,"  replied  Horace, 
frowning,  "  I'm  not  in  the  mood  just  now  to  take 
any  cheek,  least  of  all  from  you  !  " 

As  the  General  stared  at  him  with  swelling  rage  in 
his  fat  face,  and  quivering,  inarticulate  lips,  his  son 
went  on  in  a  bitter  voice,  from  between  clinched 
teeth  : 

"  I  owe  this  to  you  !  to  nobody  else  but  you  ! 
Everything  I  did  was  done  to  lift  you  out  of  the 
gutter,  to  try  and  make  a  man  of  you  again,  to  put 
you  back  into  decent  society — to  have  the  name  of 
Boyce  something  else  once  more  besides  a  butt  for 
bar-keepers  and  factory-girls.  I  had  you  around  my 
neck  like  a  mill-stone,  and  you've  pulled  me  down. 
I  hope  you're  satisfied  !  " 

For  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  the  General  would 
fall.  His  thick  neck  grew  scarlet,  his  eyes  turned 
opaque  and  filled  with  tears,  and  he  trembled  and 
almost  tottered  on  his  legs.  Then  the  fit  passed  as 


The  Lawton  Girl. 


suddenly  as  it  had  come.  He  threw  a  sweeping 
glance  up  and  down  the  figure  of  his  son  —  taking 
in  the  elegant  line  of  the  trousers,  the  costly  fur,  the 
delicate,  spotless  gloves,  the  white  jewelled  neck 
wear,  the  shining  hat,  the  hardened  and  angry  face 
beneath  it  —  and  then  broke  boisterously  forth  into 
a  loud  guffaw  of  contemptuous  laughter. 

When  he  had  laughed  his  fill,  he  turned  upon  his 
heel  without  a  word  and  walked  away,  carrying  him 
self  with  proud  erectness,  and  thumping  his  um 
brella  on  the  sidewalk  with  each  step  as  he  went. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE   LOCKOUT. 

WHEN  Thessaly  awoke  one  morning  some  fort 
night  later,  and  rubbed  its  eyes,  and,  looking  again, 
discovered  in  truth  that  everything  outside  was 
white,  the  recognition  of  the  familiar  visitor  was 
followed  by  a  sigh.  The  children  still  had  a  noisy 
friendliness  of  greeting  for  the  snow,  and  got  out 
their  sleds  and  bored  anticipatory  holes  in  their  boot- 
heels  with  a  thrill  of  old-time  enthusiasm  ;  but  even 
their  delight  became  subdued  in  its  manifestations 
before  noon  had  arrived — their  elders  seemed  to  take 
the  advent  of  winter  so  seriously. 

Villagers,  when  they  spoke  to  one  another  that 
morning,  noted  that  the  voice  of  the  community  had 
suddenly  grown  graver  in  tone  and  lower  in  pitch. 
The  threat  of  the  approaching  season  weighed  with 
novel  heaviness  on  the  general  mind. 

For  the  first  time  since  the  place  had  begun  its 
manufacturing  career,  Thessaly  was  idle.  The  Min 
ster  furnaces  had  been  closed  for  more  than  two 
weeks ;  the  mills  of  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing 
Company,  for  nearly  that  length  of  time.  Half  the 
bread-winners  in  the  town  were  out  of  work  and  saw 
no  prospect  of  present  employment. 


352  The  Laivton  Girl. 

Usage  is  most  of  all  advantageous  in  adversity. 
These  artisans  of  Thessaly  lacked  experience  in  en 
forced  idleness  and  the  trick  of  making  bricks  without 
straw.  Employment,  regular  and  well  requited,  had 
become  so  much  a  matter  of  course  that  its  sudden 
cessation  now  bewildered  and  angered  them.  Each 
day  brought  to  their  minds  its  fresh  train  of  calami 
tous  consequences.  Children  needed  shoes ;  the 
flour-barrel  was  nearly  empty  ;  to  lay  in  a  pig  for 
the  winter  might  now  be  impossible.  The  question 
of  rent  quarter  loomed  black  and  menacing  like  a 
thunder-cloud  on  the  horizon ;  and  there  were  those 
with  mortgages  on  their  little  homes,  who  already 
saw  this  cloud  streaked  with  the  lightning  of  im 
pending  tempest.  Anxious  housewives  began  to 
retrench  at  the  grocer's  and  butcher's ;  but  the 
saloons  and  tobacco  shops  had  almost  doubled  their 
average  o£  receipts. 

Even  on  ordinary  holidays  the  American  workman, 
bitten  as  he  is  with  the  eager  habitude  of  labor,  more 
often  than  not  some  time  during  the  day  finds  him 
self  close  to  the  place  where  at  other  times  he  is  em 
ployed.  There  his  thoughts  are:  thither  his  steps 
all  unconsciously  bend  themselves.  So  now,  in  this 
melancholy,  indefinite  holiday  which  November  had 
brought  to  Thessaly,  the  idlers  instinctively  hung 
about  the  deserted  works.  The  tall,  smokeless 
chimneys,  the  locked  gates,  the  grimy  windows — 
through  which  the  huge  dark  forms  of  the  motionless 
machines  showed  dimly,  like  the  fossils  of  extinct 
monsters  in  a  museum — the  dreary  stretches  of  cin- 


The  Lockout.  353 

der  heaps  and  blackened  waste  which  surrounded 
the  silent  buildings — all  these  had  a  cruel  kind  of 
fascination  for  the  dispossessed  toilers. 

They  came  each  day  and  stood  lazily  about  in 
groups  :  they  smoked  in  taciturnity,  told  sardonic 
stories,  or  discussed  their  grievance,  each  according 
to  his  mood  ;  but  they  kept  their  eyes  on  the  furnaces 
and  mills  whence  wages  came  no  more  and  where  all 
was  still.  There  was  something  in  it  akin  in  pathos 
to  the  visits  a  mother  pays  to  the  graveyard  where  her 
child  lies  hidden  from  sight  under  the  grass  and  the 
flowers.  It  was  the  tomb  of  their  daily  avocation 
that  these  men  came  to  look  at. 

But,  as  time  went  on,  there  grew  to  be  less  and  less 
of  the  pathetic  in  what  these  men  thought  and  said. 
The  sense  of  having  been  wronged  swelled  within 
them  until  there  was  room  for  nothing  but  wrath.  In 
a  general  way  they  understood  that  a  trust  had  done 
this  thing  to  them.  But  that  was  too  vague  and 
far-off  an  object  for  specific  cursing.  The  Minster 
women  were  nearer  home,  and  it  was  quite  clear 
that  they  were  the  beneficiaries  of  the  trust's  action. 
There  were  various  stories  told  about  the  vast  sum 
which  these  greedy  women  had  been  paid  by  the 
trust  for  shutting  down  their  furnaces  and  stopping 
the  output  of  ^ron  ore  from  their  fields,  and  as  days 
succeeded  one  another  this  sum  steadily  magnified 
itself. 

TheThessaly  Manufacturing  Company,  which  con 
cerned  a  much  larger  number  of  workmen,  stood  on 
a  somewhat  different  footing.  Mechanics  who  knew 
23 


354  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

men  who  were  friendly  with  Schuyler  Tenney  learned 
in  a  roundabout  fashion  that  he  really  had  been  forced 
into  closing  the  mills  by  the  action  of  the  Minster 
women.  When  you  came  to  think  of  it,  this  seemed 
Very  plausible.  Then  the  understanding  sifted  about 
among  the  men  that  the  Minsters  were,  in  reality,  the 
chief  owners  of  the  Manufacturing  Company,  and 
that  Tenney  was  only  a  business  manager  and  minor 
partner,  who  had  been  overruled  by  these  heartless 
women.  All  this  did  not  make  friends  for  Tenney. 
The  lounging  workmen  on  the  street  corners  eyed 
him  scowlingly  when  he  went  by,  but  their  active 
hatred  passed  him  over  and  concentrated  itself  upon 
the  widow  and  daughters  of  Stephen  Minster.  On 
occasion  now,  when  fresh  rumors  of  the  coming  of 
French  Canadian  workmen  were  in  the  air,  very  sin 
ister  things  were  muttered  about  these  women. 

Before  the  lockout  had  been  two  days  old,  one  of 
the  State  officers  of  a  labor  association  had  visited 
Thessaly,  had  addressed  a  hastily  convened  meeting 
of  the  ejected  workmen,  and  had  promised  liberal 
assistance  from  the  central  organization.  He  had 
gone  away  again,  but  two  or  three  subordinate  offi 
cials  of  the  body  had  appeared  in  town  and  were 
still  there.  They  professed  to  be  preparing  detailed 
information  upon  which  their  chiefs  could  act  intelli 
gently.  They  had  money  in  their  pockets,  and  dis 
played  a  quite  metropolitan  freedom  about  spending 
it  over  the  various  bars.  Some  of  the  more  conser 
vative  workmen  thought  these  emissaries  put  in  alto 
gether  too  much  time  at  these  bars,  but  they  were 


The  Lockout.  355 

evidently  popular  with  the  great  bulk  of  the  men. 
They  had  a  large  fund  of  encouraging  reminiscence 
about  the  way  bloated  capitalists  had  been  beaten 
and  humbled  and  brought  down  to  their  knees  else 
where  in  the  country,  and  they  were  evidently  quite 
confident  that  the  workers  would  win  this  fight,  too. 
Just  how  it  was  to  be  won  no  one  mentioned,  but 
when  the  financial  aid  began  to  come  in  it  would  be 
time  to  talk  about  that.  And  when  the  French 
Canadians  came,  too,  it  would  be  time —  The  rest 
of  this  familiar  sentence  was  always  left  unspoken, 
but  lowering  brows  and  significant  nods  told  how  it 
should  be  finished. 

So  completely  did  this  great  paralytic  stroke  to 
industry  monopolize  attention,  that  events  in  the 
village,  not  immediately  connected  with  it,  passed 
almost  unnoticed.  Nobody  gave  a  second  thought, 
for  example,  to  the  dissolution  of  the  law  firm  of 
Tracy  &  Boyce,  much  less  dreamed  of  linking  it  in 
any  way  with  the  grand  industrial  drama  which 
engaged  public  interest. 

Horace,  at  the  same  time,  took  rooms  at  the  new 
brick  hotel,  the  Central,  which  had  been  built  near 
the  railroad  depot,  and  opened  an  office  of  his  own 
a  block  or  two  lower  down  Main  Street  than  the  one 
he  had  vacated.  This  did  not  attract  any  special 
comment,  and  when,  on  the  evening  of  the  i6th  of 
November,  a  meeting  of  the  Thessaly  Citizens'  Club 
was  convened,  fully  half  those  who  attended  learned 
there  for  the  first  time  that  the  two  young  lawyers 
had  separated. 


356  The  Lawton  Girl. 

The  club  at  last  had  secured  a  building  for  itself, 
— or  rather  the  refusal  of  one — and  this  meeting  was 
called  to  decide  upon  ratifying  the  purchase.  It 
was  held  in  a  large  upper  room  of  the  building 
under  discussion,  which  had  been  the  gymnasium  of 
a  German  Turn  Verein,  and  still  had  stowed  away  in 
its  corners  some  of  the  apparatus  that  the  athletes 
had  used. 

When  Horace,  as  president,  called  the  gathering 
to  order,  there  were  some  forty  men  present,  repre 
senting  very  fairly  the  business  and  professional 
classes  of  the  village.  Schuyler  Tenney  was  there 
as  one  of  the  newer  members ;  and  Reuben  Tracy, 
with  John  Fairchild,  Dr.  Lester,  Father  Chance,  and 
others  of  the  founders,  sat  near  one  another  farther 
back  in  the  hall. 

The  president,  with  ready  facility,  laid  before  the 
meeting  the  business  at  hand.  The  building  they 
were  in  could  be  purchased,  or  rented  on  a  reason 
ably  extended  lease.  It  seemed  to  the  committee 
better  to  take  it  than  to  think  of  erecting  one  for 
themselves — at  least  for  the  present.  So  much 
money  would  be  needed  :  so  much  for  furniture,  so 
much  for  repairs,  etc.  ;  so  much  for  heating  and 
lighting,  so  much  for  service,  and  so  on — a  very 
compact  and  lucid  statement,  indeed. 

A  half  hour  was  passed  in  more  or  less  inconclu 
sive  discussion  before  Reuben  Tracy  rose  to  his  feet 
and  began  to  speak.  The  story  that  he  and  Boyce 
were  no  longer  friends  had  gone  the  round  of  the 
room,  and  some  men  turned  their  chairs  to  give  him 


The  Lockout.  357 

the  closer  attention  with  eye  and  ear.     Before  long 
all  were  listening  with  deep  interest  to  every  word. 

Reuben  started  by  saying  that  there  was  some 
thing  even  more  important  than  the  question  of  trie- 
new  building,  and  that  was  the  question  of  what  the 
club  itself  meant.  In  its  inception,  the  idea  of 
creating  machinery  for  municipal  improvement  had 
been  foremost.  Certainly  he  and  those  associated 
with  him  in  projecting  the  original  meeting  had 
taken  that  view  of  their  work.  That  meeting  had 
contented  itself  with  an  indefinite  expression  of  good 
intentions,  but  still  had  not  dissented  from  the  idea 
that  the  club  was  to  mean  something  and  to  do 
something.  Now  it  became  necessary,  before  final 
steps  were  taken,  to  ask  what  that  something  was  to 
be.  So  far  as  he  gathered,  much  thought  had  been 
given  as  to  the  probable  receipts  and  expenditure, 
as  to  where  the  card-room,  the  billiard-room,  the 
lunch-room,  and  so  forth  should  be  located,  and  as 
to  the  adoption  of  all  modern  facilities  for  making 
themselves  comfortable  in  their  new  club-house. 
But  about  the  original  objects  of  the  club  he  had 
not  heard  a  syllable.  To  him  this  attitude  was  pro 
foundly  unsatisfactory.  At  the  present  moment, 
the  village  was  laboring  under  a  heavy  load  of 
trouble  and  anxiety.  Nearly  if  not  quite  a  thousand 
families  were  painfully  affected  by  the  abrupt  stop 
page  of  the  two  largest  works  in  the  section.  If 
actual  want  was  not  already  experienced,  at  least 
the  vivid  threat  of  it  hung  over  their  poorer  neigh- 
bors  all  about  them.  This  fact,  it  seemed  to  him, 


358  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

must  appeal  to  them  all  much  more  than  any  con 
ceivable  suggestion  about  furnishing  a  place  in  which 
they  might  sit  about  at  their  ease  in  leisure  hours. 
He  put  it  to  the  citizens  before  him,  that  their 
way  was  made  exceptionally  clear  for  them  by  this 
calamity  which  had  overtaken  their  village.  If  the 
club  meant  anything,  it  must  mean  an  organiza 
tion  to  help  these  poor  people  who  were  suddenly, 
through  no  fault  of  their  own,  deprived  of  incomes 
and  employment.  That  was  something  vital,  press 
ing,  urgent ;  easy-chairs  and  billiard-tables  could 
wait,  but  the  unemployed  artisans  of  Thessaly  and 
their  families  could  not. 

This  in  substance  was  what  Reuben  said  ;  and 
when  he  had  finished  there  succeeded  a  curious 
instant  of  dead  silence,  and  then  a  loud  confusion  of 
comment.  Half  a  dozen  men  were  on  their  feet 
now,  among  them  both  Tenney  and  John  Fairchild. 

The  hardware  merchant  spoke  first,  and  what  he 
said  was  not  so  prudent  as  those  who  knew  him  best 
might  have  expected.  The  novel  excitement  of 
speaking  in  public  got  into  his  head,  and  he  not 
only  used  language  like  a  more  illiterate  man  than 
he  really  was,  but  he  attacked  Tracy  personally  for 
striving  to  foment  trouble  between  capital  and  labor, 
and  thereby  created  an  unfavorable  impression  upon 
the  minds  of  his  listeners. 

Editor  Fairchild  had  ready  a  motion  that  the 
building  be  taken  on  a  lease,  but  that  a  special  com 
mittee  be  appointed  by  the  meeting  to  devise  means 
for  using  it  to  assist  the  men  of  Thessaly  now  out  of 


The  Lockout.  359 

employment,  and  that  until  the  present  labor  crisis 
was  over,  all  questions  of  furnishing  a  club-house 
proper  be  laid  on  the  table.  He  spoke  vigorously 
in  support  of  this  measure,  and  when  he  had  finished 
there  was  a  significant  round  of  applause. 

Horace  rose  when  order  had  been  restored,  and 
speaking  with  some  hesitation,  said  that  he  would 
put  the  motion,  and  that  if  it  were  carried  he  would 
appoint  such  a  committee,  but — 

"  I  said  *  to  be  appointed  by  the  meeting  ' ! "  called 
out  John  Fairchild,  sharply. 

The  president  did  not  finish  his  sentence,  but  sat 
down  again,  and  Tenney  pushed  forward  and  whis 
pered  in  his  ear.  Two  or  three  others  gathered 
sympathetically  about,  and  then  still  others  joined 
the  group  formed  about  the  president,  and  discussed 
eagerly  in  undertones  this  new  situation. 

"  I  must  decline  to  put  the  motion.  It  does  not 
arise  out  of  the  report.  It  is  out  of  order,"  answered 
Horace  at  last,  as  a  result  of  this  faction  conference. 

"  Then  I  will  put  it  myself,"  cried  Fairchild,  rising. 
"  But  I  beg  first  to  move  that  you  leave  the  chair!  " 

Horace  looked  with  angered  uncertainty  down 
upon  the  men  who  remained  seated  about  Fairchild. 
They  were  as  thirty  to  his  ten,  of  thereabouts.  He 
could  not  stand  up  against  this  majority.  For  a 
moment  he  had  a  fleeting  notion  of  trying  to  concil 
iate  it,  and  steer  a  middle  course,  but  Tenney's  pres 
ence  had  made  that  impossible.  He  laid  down  his 
gavel,  and,  gathering  up  his  hat  and  coat,  stepped 
.off  the  platform  to  the  floor. 


360  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  There  is  no  need  of  moving  that,"  he  said.  "  I'll 
go  without  it.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  the  meet 
ing  is  over,  and  the  club  doesn't  exist." 

He  led  the  way  out,  followed  by  Tenney,  Jones 
the  match-manufacturer,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Turner,  and 
five  or  six  others.  One  or  two  gentlemen  rose  as  if 
to  join  the  procession,  and  then  thinking  better  of  it 
sat  down  again. 

By  general  suggestion,  John  Fairchild  took  the 
chair  thus  vacated,  but  beyond  approving  the  out 
lines  of  his  plan,  and  appointing  a  committee  with 
Tracy  at  its  head  to  see  what  could  be  done  to  carry 
it  out,  the  meeting  found  very  little  to  do.  It  was 
agreed  that  this  committee  should  also  consider  the 
question  of  funds,  and  should  call  a  meeting  when 
it  was  ready  to  report,  which  should  be  at  the  earliest 
possible  date. 

Then  the  meeting  broke  up,  and  its  members  dis 
persed,  not  without  well-founded  apprehensions  that 
they  had  heard  the  last  of  the  Thessaly  Citizens' 
Club. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

IN  THE  ROBBER'S  CAVE. 

HORACE  BOYCE  was  too  enraged  to  preserve  a 
polite  demeanor  toward  the  sympathizers  who  had 
followed  him  out  of  the  hall,  and  who  showed  a  dis 
position  to  discuss  the  situation  with  him  now  the 
street  was  reached.  After  a  muttered  word  or  two 
to  Tenney,  the  young  man  abruptly  turned  his  back 
on  the  group,  and  walked  with  a  hurried  step  down 
the  street  toward  his  hotel. 

Entering  the  building,  he  made  his  way  direct  to 
the  bar-room  back  of  the  office — a  place  where  he 
had  rarely  been  before — and  poured  out  for  himself 
a  heavy  portion  of  whiskey,  which  he  drank  off 
without  noticing  the  glass  of  iced  water  placed  for 
him  beside  the  bottle.  He  turned  to  go,  but  came 
back  again  to  the  bar  after  he  had  reached  the 
swinging  screen-doors,  and  said  he  would  take  a 
bottle  of  the  liquor  up  to  his  room.  "  I  haven't 
been  sleeping  well  these  last  few  nights,"  he  ex 
plained  to  the  bar-keeper. 

Once  in  his  room,  Horace  put  off  his  boots,  got 
into  easy  coat  and  slippers,  raked  down  the  fire, 
looked  for  an  aimless  minute  or  two  at  the  row  of 
books  on  his  shelf,  and  then  threw  himself  into  the 
arm-chair  beside  the  stove.  The  earlier  suggestion 


362  The  Lawton  Girl. 

of  gray  in  his  hair  at  the  temples  had  grown  more 
marked  these  last  few  weeks,  and  there  were  new 
lines  of  care  on  his  clear-cut  face,  which  gave  it  a  hag 
gard  look  now  as  he  bent  his  brows  in  rumination. 

An  important  interview  with  Tenney  and  Wen- 
dover  was  to  take  place  in  this  room  a  half  hour 
later;  but,  besides  a  certain  hard-drawn  notion  that 
he  would  briskly  hold  his  own  with  them,  Horace  did 
not  try  to  form  plans  for  this  or  even  to  fasten  his 
mind  upon  it. 

The  fortnight  or  more  that  had  passed  since  that 
terrible  momentary  vision  of  Kate  Minster  running 
up  the  stairs  to  avoid  him,  had  been  to  the  young 
man  a  period  of  unexampled  gloominess  and  unrest, 
full  of  deep  wrath  at  the  fate  which  had  played  upon 
him  such  a  group  of  scurvy  tricks  all  at  once,  yet 
having  room  for  sustained  exasperation  over  the 
minor  discomforts  of  his  new  condition. 

The  quarrel  with  his  father  had  forced  him  to 
change  his  residence,  and  this  was  a  peculiarly  annoy 
ing  circumstance  coming  at  just  such  a  time.  He 
realized  now  that  he  had  been  very  comfortable  in 
the  paternal  house,  and  that  his  was  a  temperament 
extremely  dependent  upon  well-ordered  and  satisfac 
tory  surroundings.  These  new  rooms  of  his,  though 
they  cost  a  good  deal  of  money,  were  not  at  all  to 
his  liking,  and  the  service  was  execrable.  The  sense 
of  being  at  home  was  wholly  lacking  ;  he  felt  as  dis 
connected  and  out  of  touch  with  the  life  about  him 
as  if  he  had  been  travelling  in  a  foreign  country  which 
he  did  not  like. 


In  the  Robber  s  Cave.  363 

The  great  humiliation  and  wrong — the  fact  that 
he  had  been  rejected  with  open  contumely  by  the 
rich  girl  he  had  planned  to  marry — lay  steadily  day 
and  night  upon  the  confines  of  his  consciousness, 
like  a  huge  black  morass  with  danger  signals  hung 
upon  all  its  borders.  His  perverse  mind  kept  return 
ing  to  view  these  menacing  signals,  and  torturing 
him  with  threats  to  disregard  them  and  plunge  into 
the  forbidden  darkness.  The  constant  strain  to  hold 
his  thoughts  back  from  this  hateful  abyss  wore  upon 
him  like  an  unremitting  physical  pain. 

The  resolve  which  had  chilled  and  stiffened  him 
into  self-possession  that  afternoon  in  the  drawing- 
room,  and  had  even  enabled  him  to  speak  with  cold 
distinctness  to  Mrs.  Minster  and  to  leave  the  house 
of  insult  and  defeat  with  dignity,  had  been  as  form 
less  and  unshaped  as  poor,  heart-torn,  trembling 
Lear's  threat  to  his  daughters  before  Gloster's  gate. 
Revenge  he  would  have — sweeping,  complete,  merci 
less,  but  by  what  means  he  knew  not.  That  would 
come  later. 

Two  weeks  were  gone,  and  the  revenge  seemed 
measurably  nearer,  though  still  its  paths  were  all  un 
mapped.  It  was  clear  enough  to  the  young  man's 
mind  now  that  Tenney  and  Wendover  were  intent 
on  nothing  less  than  plundering  the  whole  Minster 
estate.  Until  that  fatal  afternoon  in  the  drawing- 
room,  he  had  kept  himself  surrounded  with  an  elab 
orate  system  of  self-deception.  He  had  pretended 
to  himself  that  the  designs  of  these  associates  of  his 
were  merely  smart  commercial  plans,  which  needed 


364  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

only  to  be  watched  with  equal  smartness.  Now 
the  pretence  was  put  aside.  He  knew  the  men  to 
be  villains,  and  openly  rated  them  as  such  in  his 
thoughts. 

He  had  a  stern  satisfaction  in  the  thought  that 
their  schemes  were  in  his  hands.  He  would  join 
them  now,  frankly  and  with  all  his  heart,  only  pro 
viding  the  condition  that  his  share  of  the  proceeds 
should  be  safe-guarded.  They  should  have  his  help 
to  wreck  this  insolent,  purse-proud,  newly  rich 
family,  to  strip  them  remorselessly  of  their  wealth. 
His  fellow  brigands  might  keep  the  furnaces,  might 
keep  everything  in  and  about  this  stupid  Thessaly. 
He  would  take  his  share  in  hard  coin,  and  shake  the 
mud  and  slush  of  Dearborn  County  from  off  his  feet. 
He  was  only  in  the  prime  of  his  youth.  Romance 
beckoned  to  him  from  a  hundred  centres  of  summer 
civilization,  where  men  knew  how  to  live,  and  girls 
added  culture  and  dowries  to  beauty  and  artistic 
dress.  Oh,  yes  !  he  would  take  his  money  and  go. 

The  dream  of  a  career  in  his  native  village  had 
brought  him  delight  only  so  long  as  Kate  Minster 
was  its  central  figure.  That  vision  now  seemed  so 
clumsy  and  foolish  that  he  laughed  at  it.  He  real 
ized  that  he  had  never  liked  the  people  here  about 
him.  Even  the  Minsters  had  been  provincial,  only 
a  gilded  variation  upon  the  rustic  character  of  the 
section.  Nothing  but  the  over-sanguine  folly  of 
youth  could  ever  have  prompted  him  to  think  that 
he  wanted  to  be  mayor  of  Thessaly,  or  that  it  would 
be  good  to  link  his  fortunes  with  the  dull,  under-bred 


In  the  Robber's  Cave,  365 

place.      Oh,    no !    he    would    take    his    money   and 

go- 

The  two  men  for  whom  he  had  been  waiting  broke 

abruptly  in  upon  his  revery  by  entering  the  room. 
They  came  in  without  even  a  show  of  knocking  on 
the  door,  and  Horace  frowned  a  little  at  their  rude 
ness. 

Stout  Judge  Wendover  panted  heavily  with  the 
exertion  of  ascending  the  stairs,  and  it  seemed  to 
have  put  him  out  of  temper  as  well  as  breath.  He 
threw  off  his  overcoat  with  an  impatient  jerk,  took 
a  chair,  and  gruffly  grunted  "  How-de-do  !  "  in  the 
direction  of  his  host,  without  taking  the  trouble  to 
even  nod  a  salutation.  Tenney  also  seated  himself, 
but  he  did  not  remove  his  overcoat.  Even  in  the 
coldest  seasons  he  seemed  to  wear  the  same  light, 
autumnal  clothes,  creaseless  and  gray,  and  mouse 
like  in  effect.  The  two  men  looked  silently  at  Horace, 
and  he  felt  that  they  disapproved  his  velveteen  coat. 

"Well?"  he  asked,  at  last,  leaning  back  in  his 
chair  and  trying  to  equal  them  in  indifference. 
"  What  is  new  in  New  York,  Judge  ?  " 

"  Never  mind  New  York !  Thessaly  is  more  in 
our  line  just  now,"  said  Wendover,  sternly. 

The  young  man  simulated  a  slight  yawn.  "  You're 
welcome  to  my  share  of  the  town,  I'm  sure,"  he 
said;  "  I'm  not  very  enthusiastic  about  it  myself." 

"  How  much  has  Reuben  Tracy  got  to  work  on  ? 
How  much  have  you  blabbed  about  our  business  to 
him  ?"  asked  the  New  Yorker. 

"  I   neither    know    nor    care    anything  about  Mr. 


366  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Tracy,"  said  Horace,  coldly.  "  As  for  what  you  ele 
gantly  describe  as  my  '  blabbing  '  to  him,  I  daresay 
you  understand  what  it  means.  I  don't." 

"  It  means  that  you  have  made  a  fool  of  us  ;  got 
us  into  trouble  ;  perhaps  ruined  the  whole  business, 
by  your  God  A'mighty  stupidity  !  That's  what  it 
means !  "  said  Wendover,  with  his  little  blue-bead 
eyes  snapping  angrily  in  the  lamplight. 

"  I  hope  it  won't  strike  you  as  irrelevant  if  I  sug 
gest  that  this  is  my  room,"  drawled  Horace,  "  and 
that  I  have  a  distinct  preference  for  civil  conver 
sation  in  it.  If  you  have  any  criticisms  to  offer  upon 
my  conduct,  as  you  seem  to  think  that  you  have,  I 
must  beg  that  you  couch  them  in  the  language  which 
gentlemen — 

"  Gentlemen  be  damned  !  "  broke  in  the  Judge, 
sharply.  "  We've  had  too  much  *  gentleman  '  in  this 
whole  business  !  Answer  me  a  plain  question. 
What  does  Tracy  mean  by  his  applications?" 

"  I  haven't  the  remotest  idea  what  you  are  talking 
about.  I've  already  told  you  that  I  know  nothing 
of  Mr.  Tracy  or  his  doings." 

Schuyler  Tenney  interposed,  impassively:  "  He 
may  not  have  heard  of  the  application,  Judge.  You 
must  remember  that,  for  the  sake  of  appearances, 
he  then  being  in  partnership,  you  were  made  Mrs. 
Minster's  attorney,  in  both  the  agreements.  That 
is  how  notices  came  to  be  served  on  you." 

The  Judge  had  not  taken  his  eyes  off  the  young 
man  in  the  velveteen  jacket.  "  Do  you  mean  to  tell 
me  that  you  haven't  learned  from  Mrs.  Minster  that 


In  the  Robber  s  Cave.  367 

this  man  Tracy  has  made  applications  on  behalf  of 
the  daughters  to  upset  the  trust  agreement,  and  to 
have  a  receiver  appointed  to  overhaul  the  books  of 
the  Mfg.  Company?" 

Horace  sat  up  straight.  "  Good  God,  no !  "  he 
stammered.  "  I've  heard  nothing  of  that." 

"You  never  do  seem  to  hear  about  things.  What 
did  you  suppose  you  were  here  for,  except  to  watch 
Mrs.  Minster,  and  keep  track  of  what  was  going 
on  ?  "  demanded  Wendover. 

"  I  may  tell  you,"  answered  Horace,  speaking 
hesitatingly,  "  that  circumstances  have  arisen  which 
render  it  somewhat  difficult  for  me  to  call  upon  Mrs. 
Minster  at  her  house — for  that  matter,  out  of  the 
question.  She  has  only  been  to  my  office  once 
within  the — the  last  fortnight." 

Schuyler  Tenney  spoke  again.  "The  'circum 
stances  '  means,  Judge,  that  he — ' 

"  Pardon  me,  Mr.  Tenney,  "  said  Horace,  with  de 
cision  :  "  what  the  circumstances  mean  is  neither 
your  business  nor  that  of  your  friend.  That  is  some 
thing  that  we  will  not  discuss,  if  you  please." 

"  Won't  we,  though  !  "  burst  in  Wendover,  peremp 
torily.  "  You  make  a  fool  of  us.  You  go  sneaking 
around  one  of  the  girls  up  there.  You  think  you'll 
set  yourself  in  a  tub  of  butter,  and  let  our  schemes 
go  to  the  devil.  You  try  to  play  this  behind  our 
backs.  You  get  kicked  out  of  the  house  for  your 
impudence.  And  then  you  sit  here,  dressed  like  an 
Italian  organ-grinder,  by  God,  and  tell  me  that  we 
won't  discuss  the  subject !  " 


368  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Horace  rose  to  his  feet,  with  all  his  veins  tingling. 
"  You  may  leave  this  room,  both  of  you,  "  he  said, 
in  a  voice  which  he  with  difficulty  kept  down.  His 
face  was  pale  with  rage. 

Judge  Wendover  rose,  also,  but  it  was  not  to  obey 
Horace's  command.  Instead,  he  pointed  imperiously 
to  the  chair  which  the  young  man  had  vacated. 

"Sit  down  there,"  he  shouted.  "  Sit  down,  I  tell 
you  !  I  warn  you,  I'm  in  no  mood  to  be  fooled  with. 
You  deserve  to  have  your  neck  wrung  for  what 
you've  done  already.  If  I  have  another  word  of 
cheek  from  you,  by  God,  it  shall  be  wrung!  We'll 
throw  you  on  the  dungheap  as  we  would  a  dead  rat." 

Horace  had  begun  to  listen  to  these  staccato  sen 
tences  with  his  arms  folded,  and  lofty  defiance  in  his 
glance.  Somehow,  as  he  looked  into  his  antago 
nist's  blazing  eyes,  his  courage  melted  before  their 
hot  menace.  The  pudgy  figure  of  the  Judge  visibly 
magnified  itself  under  his  gaze,  and  the  threat  in 
that  dry,  husky  voice  set  his  nerves  to  quaking.  He 
sank  into  his  seat  again. 

"All  right,"  he  said,  in  an  altered  voice.  "I'm 
willing  enough  to  talk,  only  a  man  doesn't  like  to  be 
bullied  in  that  way  in  his  own  house." 

"  It's  a  tarnation  sight  better  than  being  bullied  by 
a  warder  in  Auburn  State's  prison,"  said  the  Judge, 
as  he  too  resumed  his  chair.  "Take  my  word  for 
that." 

Schuyler  Tenney  crossed  his  legs  nervously  at  this, 
and  coughed.  Horace  looked  at  them  both  in  a 
mystified  but  uneasy  silence. 


In  the  Robber  s  Cave.  369 

"You  heard  what  I  said?"  queried  Wendover, 
brusquely,  after  a  moment's  pause. 

.  "  Undoubtedly  I  did,"  answered  Horace.    "  But— 
but  its  application  escaped  me." 

"What  I  mean  is" — the  Judge  hesitated  for  a 
moment  to  note  Tenney's  mute  signal  of  dissuasion, 
and  then  went  on  :  "  We  might  as  well  not  beat 
about  the  bush — what  I  mean  is  that  there's  a  pen 
itentiary  job  in  this  thing  for  somebody,  unless  we 
all  keep  our  heads,  and  have  good  luck  to  boot. 
You've  done  your  best  to  get  us  all  into  a  hole,  with 
your  confounded  airs  and  general  foolishness.  If 
worse  comes  to  worst,  perhaps  we  can  save  ourselves, 
but  there  won't  be  a  ghost  of  a  chance  for  you. 
I'll  see  to  that  myself.  If  we  come  to  grief,  you 
shall  pay  for  it." 

"What  do  you  mean?"  asked  Horace,  in  a 
subdued  tone,  after  a  period  of  silent  reflec 
tion.  "  Where  does  the  penitentiary  part  come 
in?" 

"I  don't  agree  with  the  Judge  at  all,"  interposed 
Tenney,  eagerly.  "  I  don't  think  there's  any  need  of 
looking  on  the  dark  side  of  the  thing.  We  don't 
know  that  Tracy  knows  anything.  And  then,  why 
shouldn't  we  be  able  to  get  our  own  man  appointed 
receiver?  " 

"  This  is  the  situation,"  said  Wendover,  speak 
ing  deliberately.  "  You  advised  Mrs.  Minster  to 
borrow  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  pur 
chase  of  certain  machinery  patents,  and  you  drew  up 
the  papers  for  the  operation.  It  happens  that  she 
24 


370  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

already  owned — or  rather  that  the  Mfg.  Company 
already  owned — these  identical  rights  and  patents. 
They  were  a  part  of  the  plant  and  business  we  put 
into  the  company  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  when  we  moved  over  from  Cadmus.  But 
nobody  on  her  side,  except  old  Clarke,  knew  just 
what  it  was  that  we  put  in.  He  died  in  Florida, 
and  it  was  arranged  that  his  papers  should  pass  to 
you.  There  was  no  record  that  we  had  sold  the 
right  of  the  nail  machine." 

Horace  gazed  with  bewilderment  into  the  hard- 
drawn,  serious  faces  of  the  two  men  who  sat  across 
the  little  table  from  him.  In  the  yellow  lamp 
light  these  countenances  looked  like  masks,  and  he 
searched  them  in  vain  for  any  sign  of  astonishment 
or  emotion.  The  thing  which  was  now  for  the  first 
time  being  put  into  words  was  strange,  but  as  it 
shaped  itself  in  his  mind  he  did  not  find  himself 
startled.  It  was  as  if  he  had  always  known  about 
it,  but  had  allowed  it  to  lapse  in  his  memory. 
These  men  were  thieves — and  he  was  their  asso 
ciate  !  The  room  with  its  central  point  of  light 
where  the  three  knaves  were  gathered,  and  its  deep 
ening  shadows  round  about,  suggested  vaguely  to 
him  a  robber's  cave.  Primary  instincts  arose 
strong  within  him.  Terror  lest  discovery  should 
come  yielded  precedence  to  a  fierce  resolve  to  have 
a  share  of  the  booty.  It  seemed  minutes  to  him 
before  he  spoke  again. 

"  Then  she  was  persuaded  to  mortgage  her  prop 
erty,  to  buy  over  again  at  four  times  its  value  what 


In  the  Robber  s  Cave.  371 

she  had  already  purchased  ? "  he  asked,  with  an 
assumption  of  calmness. 

"  That  seems  to  be  about  what  you  managed  to 
induce  her  to  do,"  said  the  Judge,  dryly. 

"  Then  you  admit  that  it  was  I  who  did  it — that 
you  owe  the  success  of  the  thing  to  me!"  The 
young  man  could  not  restrain  his  eagerness  to 
establish  this  point.  He  leaned  over  the  table,  and 
his  eyes  sparkled  with  premature  triumph. 

"  No  :  I  said  '  seems,'  answered  Wendover.  "  We 
know  better.  We  know  that  from  the  start  you  have 
done  nothing  but  swell  around  at  our  expense,  and 
create  as  many  difficulties  for  us  and  our  business  as 
possible.  But  the  courts  and  the  newspapers  would 
look  at  it  differently.  They  would  be  sure  to  regard 
you  as  the  one  chiefly  responsible." 

"  I  should  think  we  were  pretty  much  in  the  same 
boat,  my  friend,"  said  Horace,  coldly. 

"  I  daresay,"  replied  the  New  Yorker,  "  only  with 
this  difference :  we  can  swim,  and  you  can't.  By 
that  I  mean,  we've  got  money,  and  you  haven't. 
See  the  point?  " 

Horace  saw  the  point,  and  felt  himself  revolted  at 
the  naked  selfishness  and  brutality  with  which  it  was 
exposed.  The  disheartening  fact  that  these  men 
would  not  hesitate  for  an  instant  to  sacrifice  him — 
that  they  did  not  like  him,  and  would  not  lift  a 
finger  to  help  him  unless  it  was  necessary  for  their 
own  salvation — rose  gloomily  before  his  mind. 

"  Still,  it  would  be  better  for  all  of  us  that  the 
boat  shouldn't  be  capsized  at  all,"  he  remarked. 


372  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

"  That's  it — that's  the  point, "put  in  Tenney, with 
animation  ;  "  that's  what  I  said  to  the  Judge." 

"This  Tracy  of  yours,"  said  Wendover,  "  has  got 
hold  of  the  Minster  girls.  He's  acting  for  them. 
He  has  been  before  Judge  Waller  with  a  whole  batch 
of  applications.  First,  in  chambers,  he's  brought 
an  action  to  dissolve  the  trust,  and  asked  for  an 
order  returnable  at  Supreme  Court  chambers  to 
show  cause  why,  in  the  mean  time,  the  furnaces 
shouldn't  be  opened.  His  grounds  are,  first,  that 
the  woman  was  deceived  ;  and  second,  that  the  trust 
is  against  public  policy.  Now,  it  seems  to  me  that 
our  State  courts  can't  issue  an  ord-er  binding  on  a 
board  of  directors  at  Pittsburg.  Isn't  it  a  thing 
that  belongs  to  a  United  States  court  ?  How  is 
that?" 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know,"  answered  Horace.  "  It's 
a  new  question  to  me." 

"  Tenney  told  me  you  knew  something  as  a  law 
yer,"  was  Wendover's  angry  comment.  "  I'd  like 
to  know  where  it  comes  in." 

The  hardware  merchant  hastened  to  avert  the 
threatened  return  to  personalities.  "  Tell  him  about 
the  receiver  motion,"  he  said. 

"  Then  Tracy,  before  the  same  judge,  but  in  spe 
cial  term,  has  applied  for  a  receiver  for  the  Thes- 
saly  Mfg.  Company,  on  the  ground  of  fraud." 

"  That's  the  meanest  thing  about  the  whole  busi 
ness,"  commented  Tenney. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  advise  doing  ?  "  asked  Horace, 
despondently. 


In  the  Robber's  Cave.  373 

"  There  are  two  things,"  said  Wendover.  "  First, 
to  delay  everything  until  after  New  Year,  when  Mrs. 
Minster's  interest  becomes  due  and  can't  be  paid. 
That  can  be  done  by  denying  jurisdiction  of  the 
State  court  in  the  trust  business,  and  by  asking  for 
particulars  in  the  receiver  matter.  The  next  thing 
is  to  make  Thessaly  too  hot  for  those  women,  and 
for  Tracy,  too,  before  New  Year.  If  a  mob  should 
smash  all  the  widow's  windows  for  her,  for  instance, 
perhaps  burn  her  stable,  she'd  be  mighty  glad  to  get 
out  of  town,  and  out  of  the  iron  business,  too." 

"  But  that  wouldn't  shut  Tracy  up,"  observed 
Tenney.  "  He  sticks  at  things  like  a  bull-dog,  once 
he  gets  a  good  hold." 

"  I'm  thinking  about  Tracy,"  mused  the  Judge. 

Horace  found  himself  regarding  these  two  vis 
itors  of  his  with  something  like  admiration.  The 
resourcefulness  and  resolution  of  their  villainy  were 
really  wonderful.  He  felt  his  courage  coming  back 
to  him.  Such  men  would  be  sure  to  win,  if  victory 
were  not  absolutely  impossible.  At  least,  there  was 
nothing  for  it  but  to  cordially  throw  in  his  lot  with 
them. 

"  Whatever  is  decided  upon,  I'll  do  my  share," 
he  said,  with  decision.  Upon  reflection,  he  added  : 
"  But  if  I  share  the  risks,  I  must  be  clearly  under 
stood  to  also  share  the  profits." 

Judge  Wendover  looked  at  the  young  man  sternly, 
and  breathed  hard  as  he  looked.  "  Upon  my  word," 
he  growled  at  last,  "  you're  the  cheekiest  young  cub 
I've  seen  since  before  the  war  !  " 


374  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

Horace  stood  to  his  guns.  "  However  that  may 
be,"  he  said,  "  you  see  what  I  mean.  This  is  a 
highly  opportune  time,  it  strikes  me,  to  discover  just 
how  I  stand  in  this  matter." 

"You'll  stand  where  you're  put,  or  it  will  be  the 
worse  for  you  !  " 

"  Surely,"  Schuyler  Tenney  interposed,  "  you 
ought  to  have  confidence  that  we  will  do  the  fair 
thing." 

"  My  bosom  may  be  simply  overflowing  with  con 
fidence  in  you  both  " — Horace  ventured  upon  a  sug 
gestion  of  irony  in  his  intonation — "  but  experience 
seems  to  indicate  the  additional  desirability  of  an 
understanding.  If  you  will  think  it  over,  I  daresay 
you  will  gather  the  force  of  my  remark." 

The  New  Yorker  seemed  not  to  have  heard  the 
remark,  much  less  to  have  understood  it.  He  ad 
dressed  the  middle  space  between  Horace  and  Ten 
ney  in  a  meditative  way :  "  Those  two  speech-mak 
ing  fellows  who  are  here  from  the  Amalgamated 
Confederation  of  Labor,  or  whatever  it  is,  can  both 
be  had  to  kick  up  a  row  whenever  we  like.  I  know 
them  both  of  old.  They  notified  me  that  they  were 
coming  here  ten  days  ago.  We  can  tell  them  to 
keep  their  hands  off  the  Canadians  when  they  come 
next  week,  and  lead  their  crowd  instead  up  to  the 
Minster  house.  We'll  go  over  that  together,  Ten 
ney,  later  on.  But  about  Tracy — perhaps  these  fel 
lows  might — 

Wendover  followed  up  the  train  of  this  thought 
in  silence,  with  a  ruminative  eye  on  vacancy. 


In  the  Robber  s  Cave.  375 

"  What  I  was  saying,"  insisted  Horace,  "  was  that  I 
wanted  to  know  just  how  I  stand." 

"  I  suppose  it's  out  of  the  question  to  square 
Tracy,"  pursued  Wendover,  thinking  aloud,  u  and 
that  Judge  Waller  that  he's  applied  to,  he's  just 
another  such  an  impracticable  cuss.  There's  no 
security  for  business  at  all,  when  such  fellows  have 
the  power  to  muddle  and  interfere  with  it.  Ten- 
ney,  you  know  this  Tracy.  Why  can't  you  think  of 
something?" 

"  As  I  remarked  before,"  Horace  interposed  once 
more,  "  what  am  I  to  get  out  of  this  thing?" 

This  time  the  New  Yorker  heard  him.  He 
slowly  turned  his  round,  white-framed  face  toward 
the  speaker,  and  fixed  upon  him  a  penetrating 
glance  of  wrath,  suspicion,  and  dislike. 

"  Oh,  that  is  what  you  want  to  know,  is  it  ?  "  he 
said,  abruptly,  after  a  momentary  silence.  "  Well, 
sir,  if  you  had  your  deserts,  you'd  get  about  seven 
years'  hard  labor.  As  it  is,  you've  had  over  seven 
thousand  dollars  out  of  the  concern,  and  you've  done 
seven  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  damage. 
If  you  can  make  a  speech  before  Judge  Waller  this 
week  that  will  stave  off  all  these  things  until  after 
New  Year's,  perhaps  I  may  forgive  you  some  of  the 
annoyance  and  loss  your  infernal  idiocy  and  self-con 
ceit  have  caused  us.  When  you've  done  that,  it 
will  be  time  enough  to  talk  to  me  about  giving  you 
another  chance  to  keep  your  salary.  But  under 
stand  this,  sir  !  You  never  made  a  bigger  mistake 
in  your  life  than  in  thinking  you  could  dictate  terms 


376  The  Lawton  Girl. 

to  Peter  Wendover,  now  or  any  other  time  !  Why, 
you  poor  empty-headed  creature,  who  do  you  sup 
pose  you  could  frighten  ?  You're  as  helpless  as  a 
June-bug  in  a  cistern  with  the  curb  shut  down." 

The  Judge  had  risen  while  speaking,  and  put  on 
his  overcoat.  He  took  his  hat  now,  and  glanced  to 
note  that  Tenney  was  also  on  his  feet.  Then  he 
added  these  further  words  to  the  young  man,  whose 
head  was  drooping  in  spite  of  himself,  and  whose 
figure  had  sunk  into  a  crouching  posture  in  the  easy- 
chair  : 

"  Let  me  give  you  some  advice.  Take  precious 
good  care  not  to  annoy  me  any  more  while  this  busi 
ness  is  on.  I  never  did  take  much  stock  in  you.  It 
was  Tenney  who  picked  you  out,  and  who  thought 
you  could  be  useful.  I  didn't  believe  in  you  from 
the  start.  Now  that  I've  summered  and  wintered 
you,  I  stand  amazed,  by  God  !  that  I  could  ever  have 
let  you  get  mixed  up  in  my  affairs.  But  here  you 
are,  and  it  will  be  easier  for  us  to  put  up  with  you, 
and  carry  you  along,  than  throw  you  out.  Besides, 
you  may  be  able  to  do  some  good,  if  what  I've  said 
puts  any  sense  into  your  head.  But  don't  run  away 
with  the  idea  that  you  are  necessary  to  us,  or  that 
you  are  going  to  share  anything,  as  you  call  it,  or 
that  you  can  so  much  as  lift  your  finger  against  us 
without  first  of  all  crushing  yourself.  This  is  plain 
talk,  and  it  may  help  you  to  size  yourself  up  as  you 
really  are.  According  to  your  own  notion  of  your 
self,  God  Almighty's  overcoat  would  have  about 
made  you  a  vest.  My  idee  of  you  is  different,  you 


In  the  Robber  s  Cave.  377 

see,  and  I'm  a  good  deal  nearer  right  than  you  are. 
I'll  send  the  papers  over  to  you  to-morrow,  and  let 
us  see  what  you  will  do  with  them." 

The  New  York  magnate  turned  on  his  heel  at  this, 
and,  without  any  word  of  adieu,  he  and  Tenney  left 
the  room. 

Horace  sat  until  long  after  midnight  in  his  chair, 
with  the  bottle  before  him,  half-dazed  and  over 
whelmed  amidst  the  shapeless  ruins  of  his  ambition. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE  MISTS   CLEARING  AWAY. 

REUBEN  TRACY  rose  at  an  unwontedly  early  hour 
next  morning,  under  the  spur  of  consciousness  that 
he  had  a  very  busy  day  before  him.  While  he 
was  still  at  his  breakfast  in  the  hotel  diriing-room, 
John  Fairchild  came  to  keep  an  appointment  made 
the  previous  evening,  and  the  two  men  were  out  on 
the  streets  together  before  Thessaly  seemed  wholly 
awake. 

Their  first  visit  was  to  the  owner  of  the  building 
which  the  Citizens'  Club  had  thought  of  hiring,  and 
their  business  here  was  promptly  despatched  ;  thence 
they  made  their  way  to  the  house  of  a  boss-carpenter, 
and  within  the  hour  they  had  called  upon  a  plumber, 
a  painter,  and  one  or  two  other  master  artisans. 
By  ten  o'clock  those  of  this  number  with  whom  ar 
rangements  had  been  made  had  put  in  an  appearance 
at  the  building  in  question,  and  Tracy  and  Fairchild 
explained  to  them  the  plans  which  they  were  to 
carry  out.  The  discussion  and  settlement  of  these 
consumed  the  time  until  noon,  when  the  lawyer  and 
the  editor  separated,  and  Reuben  went  to  his  office. 

Here,  as  had  been  arranged,  he  found  old  'Squire 
Gedney  waiting  for  him.  A  long  interview  behind 


The  Mists  Clearing  Away.  379 

the  closed  door  of  the  inner  office  followed,  and 
when  the  two  men  came  out  the  justice  of  the 
peace  was  putting  a  roll  of  bills  into  his  pocket. 

"  This  is  Tuesday,"  he  said  to  Tracy.  "  I  daresay 
I  can  be  back  by  Thursday.  The  bother  about  it  is 
that  Cadmus  is  such  an  out-of-the-way  place  to  get 
at." 

"  At  all  events,  I'll  count  on  seeing  you  Friday 
morning,"  answered  Reuben.  "Then,  if  you've  got 
what  I  expect,  we  can  go  before  the  county  judge 
and  get  our  warrants  by  Saturday,  and  that  will  be 
in  plenty  of  time  for  the  grand  jury  next  week." 

"  If  they  don't  all  eat  their  Christmas  dinner  in 
Auburn  prison,  call  me  a  Dutchman  !  "  was  Gedney's 
confident  remark,  as  he  took  his  departure. 

Reuben,  thus  left  alone,  walked  up  and  down  the 
larger  room  in  pleased  excitement,  his  hands  in  his 
pockets  and  his  eyes  aglow  with  satisfaction.  So 
all-pervasive  was  his  delight  that  it  impelled  him  to 
song,  and  he  hummed  to  himself  as  he  paced  the 
floor  a  faulty  recollection  of  a  tune  his  mother  had 
been  fond  of,  many  years  before.  Reuben  had  no 
memory  for  music,  and  knew  neither  the  words  nor 
the  air,  but  no  winged  outburst  of  exultation  from  a 
triumphant  Viking  in  the  opera  could  have  reflected 
a  more  jubilant  mood. 

He  had  unearthed  the  conspiracy,  seized  upon  its 
avenues  of  escape,  laboriously  traced  all  its  subter 
ranean  burrowings.  Even  without  the  proof  which 
it  was  to  be  hoped  that  Gedney  could  bring  from 
Cadmus,  Reuben  believed  he  had  information 


380  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

enough  to  justify  criminal  proceedings.  Nothing 
could  be  clearer  than  guilty  collusion  between  this 
New  Yorker,  Wendover,  and  some  of  "the  heads  of 
the  pig-iron  trust  to  rob  Mrs.  Minster  and  her 
daughters.  At  almost  every  turn  and  corner  in  the 
ramification  of  the  huge  swindle,  Tenney  and  Boyce 
also  appeared.  They  too  should  not  escape.  Reu 
ben  Tracy  was  the  softest-hearted  of  men,  but  it  did 
not  occur  to  him  to  relent  when  he  thought  of  his 
late  partner.  To  the  contrary,  there  was  a  decided 
pleasure  in  the  reflection  that  nothing  could  avert 
well-merited  punishment  from  this  particular  young 
man. 

The  triumph  had  its  splendid  public  side,  more 
over.  Great  and  lasting  good  must  follow  such  an 
exposure  as  he  would  make  of  the  economic  and 
social  evils  underlying  the  system  of  trusts.  A 
staggering  blow  would  be  dealt  to  the  system,  and 
to  the  sentiment  back  of  it  that  rich  men  might  do 
what  they  liked  in  America.  With  pardonable  pride 
he  thrilled  at  the  thought  that  his  arm  was  to  strike 
this  blow.  The  effect  would  be  felt  all  over  the 
country.  It  could  not  but  affect  public  opinion,  too, 
on  the  subject  of  the  tariff — that  bomb-proof  cover 
under  which  these  men  had  conducted  their  knavish 
operations.  Reuben  sang  with  increased  fervor  as 
this  passed  through  his  mind. 

On  his  way  back  from  luncheon — which  he  still 
thought  of  as  dinner — Reuben  Tracy  stopped  for 
a  few  moments  at  the  building  he  and  Fairchild 
had  rented.  The  carpenters  were  already  at  work, 


The  Mists  Clearing  Away.  381 

ripping  down  the  partitions  on  the  ground  floor, 
in  a  choking  and  clamorous  confusion  of  dust  and 
sound  of  hammering.  The  visible  energy  of  these 
workmen  and  the  noise  they  made  were  like  a  sym 
pathetic  continuation  of  his  song  of  success.  He 
would  have  enjoyed  staying  for  hours,  watching  and 
listening  to  these  proofs  that  he  at  last  was  doing 
something  to  help  move  the  world  around. 

When  he  came  out  upon  the  street  again,  it  was 
to  turn  his  steps  to  the  house  of  the  Minsters.  He 
had  not  been  there  since  his  visit  in  March,  and  there 
was  a  certain  embarrassment  about  his  going  now. 
It  was  really  Mrs.  Minster's  house,  and  he  had  been 
put  in  the  position  of  acting  against  her,  as  counsel 
for  her  daughters.  It  was  therefore  a  somewhat 
delicate  business.  But  Miss  Kate  had  asked  him  to 
come,  and  he  would  be  sincerely  glad  of  the  oppor 
tunity  of  telling  Mrs.  Minster  the  whole  truth,  if  she 
would  listen  to  it.  Just  what  form  this  opportunity 
might  take  he  could  not  foresee  ;  but  his  duty  was 
so  clear,  and  his  arguments  must  carry  such  absolute 
conviction,  that  he  approached  the  ordeal  with  a 
light  heart. 

Miss  Kate  came  down  into  the  drawing-room  to 
receive  him,  and  Reuben  noted  with  a  deep  joy  that 
she  again  wore  the  loose  robe  of  creamy  cloth,  girdled 
by  that  same  enchanted  rope  of  shining  white  silk. 
Something  made  him  feel,  too,  that  she  observed 
the  pleased  glance  of  recognition  he  bestowed  upon 
her  garments,  and  understood  it,  and  was  not  vexed. 
Their  relations  had  been  distinctly  cordial — even 


382  The  Lawton  Girl. 

confidential — for  the  past  fortnight ;  but  the  reap 
pearance  of  this  sanctified  and  symbolical  gown — 
this  mystical  robe  which  he  had  enshrined  in  his 
heart  with  incense  and  candles  and  solemn  venera 
tion,  as  does  the  Latin  devotee  with  the  jewelled 
dress  of  the  Bambino — seemed  of  itself  to  establish 
a  far  more  tender  intimacy  between  them.  He  be 
came  conscious,  all  at  once,  that  she  knew  of  his 
love. 

"  I  have  asked  mamma  to  see  you,"  she  said,  when 
they  were  seated,  "  and  I  think  she  will.  Since  it 
was  first  suggested  to  her,  she  has  wavered  a  good 
deal,  sometimes  consenting,  sometimes  not.  The 
poor  lady  is  almost  distracted  with  the  trouble  in 
which  we  have  all  become  involved,  and  that  makes 
it  all  the  more  difficult  for  her  to  see  things  in  their 
proper  connection.  I  hope  you  may  be  able  to  show 
her  just  how  matters  stand,  and  who  her  real  friends 
are." 

The  girl  left  at  this,  and  in  a  few  moments  reap 
peared  with  her  mother,  to  whom  she  formally  pre 
sented  Mr.  Tracy. 

If  Mrs.  Minster  had  suffered  great  mental  anguish 
since  the  troubles  came  on,  her  countenance  gave 
no  hint  of  the  fact.  It  was  as  regular  and  imper 
turbable  and  deceptively  impressive  as  ever,  and 
she  bore  herself  with  perfect  self-possession,  bow 
ing  with  frosty  precision,  and  seating  herself  in 
silence. 

Reuben  himself  began  the  talk  by  explaining  that 
the  steps  which  he  had  felt  himself  compelled  to 


The  Mists  Clearing  Away.  383 

take  in  the  interest  of  the  daughters  implied  not  the 
slightest  hostility  to  the  mother.  They  had  had,  in 
fact,  the  ultimate  aim  of  helping  her  as  well.  He 
had  satisfied  himself  that  she  was  in  the  clutch  of  a 
criminal  conspiracy  to  despoil  her  estate  and  that  of 
her  daughters.  It  was  absolutely  necessary  to  act 
with  promptness,  and,  as  he  was  not  her  lawyer,  to 
temporarily  and  technically  separate  the  interest  of 
her  daughters  from  her  own,  for  legal  purposes.  All 
that  had  been  done  was,  however,  quite  as  much  to 
her  advantage  as  to  that  of  her  daughters,  and  when 
he  had  explained  to  her  the  entire  situation  he  felt 
sure  she  would  be  willing  to  allow  him  to  represent 
her  as  well  as  her  daughters  in  the  effort  to  protect 
the  property  and  defeat  the  conspiracy. 

Mrs.  Minster  offered  no  comment  upon  this  ex 
pression  of  confidence,  and  Reuben  went  on  to  lay 
before  her  the  whole  history  of  the  case.  He  did 
this  with  great  clearness — as  if  he  had  been  talking 
to  a  child — pointing  out  to  her  how  the  scheme  of 
plunder  originated,  where  its  first  operations  revealed 
themselves,  and  what  part  in  turn  each  of  the  three 
conspirators  had  played. 

She  listened  to  it  all  with  an  expressionless  face, 
and  though  she  must  have  been  startled  and  shocked 
by  a  good  deal  of  it,  Reuben  could  gather  no  indi 
cation  from  her  manner  of  her  .feelings  or  her  opin 
ions.  When  he  had  finished,  and  his  continued 
silence  rendered  it  clear  that  he  was  not  going  to 
say  any  more,  she  made  her  first  remark. 

"  I'm   much  obliged  to  you,  I'm  sure,"   she  said, 


384  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

with  no  sign  of  emotion.  "  It  was  very  kind  of  you 
to  explain  it  to  me.  But  of  course  they  explain  it 
quite  differently." 

"  No  doubt,"  answered  Reuben.  "That  is  just 
what  they  would  do.  The  difference  is  that  they 
have  lied  to  you,  and  that  I  have  told  you  what  the 
books,  what  the  proofs,  really  show." 

"  I  have  known  Peter  Wendover  since  we  were 
children  together,"  she  said,  after  a  momentary 
pause,  "  and  he  never  would  have  advised  my  daugh 
ters  to  sue  their  own  mother  !  " 

Reuben  suppressed  a  groan.  "  Nobody  has  sued 
you,  Mrs.  Minster  ;  least  of  all,  your  daughters,"  he 
tried  to  explain.  "  The  actions  I  have  brought — 
that  is,  including  the  applications  —  are  directed 
against  the  men  who  have  combined  to  swindle  you, 
not  at  all  against  you.  They  might  just  as  well 
have  been  brought  in  your  name  also,  only  that  I 
had  no  power  to  act  for  you." 

"  It  is  the  same  as  suing  me.  Judge  Wendover 
said  so,"  was  her  reply. 

"  What  I  seek  to  have  you  realize  is  that  Judge 
Wendover  purposely  misleads  you.  He  is  the  head 
and  front  of  the  conspiracy  to  rob  you.  I  am  going 
to  have  him  indicted  for  it.  The  proofs  are  as  plain 
as  a  pikestaff.  How,  then,  can  you  continue  to  be 
lieve  what  he  tells  you  ?  " 

"  I  quite  believe  that  you  mean  well,  Mr.  Tracy," 
said  Mrs.  Minster.  "  But  lawyers,  you  know,  always 
take  opposite  sides.  One  lawyer  tells  you  one  thing; 
then  the  other  swears  to  precisely  the  contrary. 


The  Mists  Clearing  Away.  385 

Don't  think  I  blame  them.     Of  course  they  have  to 
do  it.     But  you  know  what  I  mean." 

A  little  more  of  this  hopeless  conversation  ensued, 
and  then  Mrs.  Minster  rose.  "  Don't  let  me  drive 
you  away,  Mr.  Tracy,"  she  said,  as  he  too  got  upon 
his  feet.  "  But  if  you  will  excuse  me — I've  had  so 
much  worry  lately — and  these  headaches  come  on 
every  afternoon  now." 

As  Reuben  walked  beside  her  to  open  the  door, 
he  ventured  to  say :  "  It  is  a  very  dear  wish  of  mine, 
Mrs.  Minster,  to  remove  all  this  cause  for  worry,  and 
to  get  you  back  control  over  your  property,  and  to 
rid  you  of  these  scoundrels,  root  and  branch.  For 
your  own  sake  and  that  of  your  daughters,  let  me 
beg  of  you  to  take  no  step  th'at  will  embarrass  me 
in  the  fight.  There  is  nothing  that  you  could  do 
now  to  specially  help  me,  except  to  do  nothing  at 
all." 

"  If  you  mean  for  me  not  to  sue  my  daughters," 
she  said,  as  he  opened  the  door,  "  you  may  rest  easy. 
Nothing  would  tempt  me  to  do  that  /  The  very 
idea  of  such  a  thing  is  too  dreadful.  Good-day, 
sir." 

Reuben  this  time  did  not  repress  the  groan,  after 
he  had  closed  the  door  upon  Mrs.  Minster.  He 
realized  that  he  had  made  no  more  impression  on 
her  mind  than  ordnance  practice  makes  on  a  sand 
bank.  He  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  his  dejection 
as  he  returned  to  where  Kate  sat,  and  resumed  his 
chair  in  front  of  her.  The  daughter's  smiling  face, 
however,  partially  reassured  him. 
25 


386  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

"  That's  mamma  all  over,"  she  said.  "  Isn't  it 
wonderful  how  those  old  race  types  reappear,  even 
in  our  day?  She  is  as  Dutch  as  any  lady  of  Haar 
lem  that  Franz  Hals  ever  painted.  Her  mind  works 
sidewise,  like  a  crab.  I'm  so  glad  you  told  her 
everything  !  " 

"  If  I  could  only  feel  that  it  had  had  any  result," 
said  Reuben. 

"Oh,  but  it  will  have !"  the  girl  insisted  confi 
dently.  "  I'm  sure  she  liked  you  very  much." 

"  That  reminds  me — "  the  lawyer  spoke  musingly 
— "  I  think  I  was  told  once  that  she  didn't  like  me  ; 
that  she  stipulated  that  I  was  not  to  be  consulted 
about  her  business  by — by  my  then  partner.  I 
wonder  why  that  was'.  Do  you  know  ?  " 

"  I  have  an  idea,"  said  Kate.  Then  she  stopped, 
and  a  delicate  shadowy  flush  passed  over  her  face. 
"But  it  was  nothing,"  she  added,  hastily,  after  a 
long  pause.  She  could  not  bring  herself  to  men 
tion  that  year-old  foolish  gossip  about  the  Lawton 
girl. 

Reuben  did  not  press  for  an  answer,  but  began 
telling  her  about  the  work  he  and  Fairchild  had 
inaugurated  that  morning.  "  We  are  not  going  to 
wait  for  the  committee,"  he  said.  "The  place  can 
be  in  some  sort  of  shape  within  a  week,  I  hope,  and 
then  we  are  going  to  open  it  as  a  reading-room 
first  of  all,  where  every  man  of  the  village  who  be 
haves  himself  can  be  free  to  come.  There  will  be 
tea  and  coffee  at  low  prices  ;  and  if  the  lockout  con 
tinues,  I've  got  plans  for  something  else — a  kind  of 


The  Mists  Clearing  Away.  387 

soup-kitchen.  We  sha'n't  attempt  to  put  the  thing 
on  a  business  basis  at  all  until  the  men  have  got  to 
work  again.  Then  we  will  leave  it  to  them,  as  to 
how  they  will  support  it,  and  what  shall  be  done 
with  the  other  rooms.  By  the  way,  I  haven't  seen 
much  lately  of  the  Lawton  girl's  project,  I've  heard 
vaguely  that  a  start  had  been  made,  and  that  it 
seemed  to  work  well.  Are  you  pleased  with 
it?" 

Kate  answered  in  a  low  voice :  "  I  have  never 
been  there  but  once  since  we  met  there  last  winter. 
I  did  what  I  promised,  in  the  way  of  assistance,  but 
I  did  not  go  again.  I  too  have  heard  vaguely  that 
it  was  a  success." 

Reuben  looked  such  obvious  inquiry  that  that 
young  lady  felt  impelled  to  explain  :  "  The  very 
next  day  after  I  went  there  last  with  the  money  and 
the  plan,  I  heard  some  very  painful  things  about  the 
girl — about  her  present  life,  I  mean — from  a  friend, 
or  rather  from  one  whom  I  took  then  to  be  a  friend  ; 
and  what  he  said  prejudiced  me,  I  suppose — " 

A  swift  intuition  helped  Reuben  to  say:  "  By  a 
'  friend  '  you  mean  Horace  Boyce  !  " 

Kate  nodded  her  head  in  assent.  As  for  Reuben, 
he  rose  abruptly  from  his  seat,  motioning  to  his  com 
panion  to  keep  her  chair.  He  thrust  his  hands  into 
his  pockets,  and  began  pacing  up  and  down  along 
the  edge  of  the  sofa  at  her  side,  frowning  at  the 
carpet. 

"  Miss  Kate,"  he  said  at  last,  in  a  voice  full 
of  strong  feeling,  "  there  is  no  possibility  of  my 


388  The  Lawton  Girl. 

telling  you  what  an  infernal  blackguard  that  man 
is." 

"Yes,  he  has  behaved  very  badly,"  she  said.  "  I 
suppose  I  am  to  blame  for  having  listened  to  him  at 
all.  But  he  had  seen  me  there  at  her  place,  through 
the  glass  door,  and  he  seemed  so  anxious  to  keep 
me  from  being  imposed  upon,  and  possibly  compro 
mised,  that — " 

"My  dear  young  lady,"  broke  in  Reuben,  "you 
have  no  earthly  idea  of  the  cruelty  and  meanness  of 
what  he  did  by  saying  that  to  you.  I  can't — or  yes, 
why  shouldn't  I  ?  The  fact  is  that  that  poor  girl 
— and  when  she  was  at  my  school  she  was  as  honest 
and  good  and  clever  a  child  as  I  ever  saw  in  my  life 
— owed  her  whole  misery  and  wretchedness  to  Hor 
ace  Boyce.  I  never  dreamed  of  it,  either  at  the  time 
or  later;  in  fact,  until  the  very  day  I  met  you  at  the 
milliner's  shop.  Somehow  I  mentioned  that  he  was 
my  partner,  and  then  she  told  me.  And  then, 
knowing  that,  I  had  to  sit  still  all  summer  and 
see  him  coming  here  every  day,  on  intimate  terms 
with  you  and  your  sister  and  mother."  Reuben 
stopped  himself  with  the  timely  recollection  that 
this  was  an  unauthorized  emotion,  and  added  hur 
riedly :  "  But  I  never  could  have  imagined  such  base 
ness,  to  deliberately  slander  her  to  you  !  " 

Kate  did  not  at  once  reply,  and  when  she  did 
speak  it  was  to  turn  the  talk  away  from  Horace 
Boyce.  "  I  will  go  and  see  her  to-morrow,"  she 
said. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  you  say  that,"  was  Reu- 


The  Mists  Clearing  Away.  389 

ben's  comment.  "  It  is  like  you  to  say  it,"  he  went 
on,  with  brightening  eyes.  "  It  is  a  benediction  to 
be  the  friend  of  a  young  woman  like  you,  who  has 
no  impulses  that  are  not  generous,  and  whose  only 
notion  of  power  is  to  help  others." 

"  I  shall  not  like  you  if  you  begin  to  flatter,"  she 
replied,  with  mock  austerity,  and  an  answering  light 
in  her  eyes.  "  I  am  really  a  very  perverse  and 
wrong-headed  girl,  distinguished  only  for  having 
never  done  any  good  at  all.  And  anybody  who 
says  otherwise  is  not  a  friend,  but  a  flatterer,  and  I 
am  weary  of  false  tongues." 

Miss  Ethel  came  in  while  Reuben  was  still  turn 
ing  over  in  his  mind  the  unexpressed  meanings  of 
these  words,  and  with  her  entrance  the  talk  became 
general  once  more. 

The  lawyer  described  to  the  two  sisters  the  legal 
steps  he  had  taken,  and  their  respective  significance, 
and  then  spoke  of  his  intention  to  make  a  criminal 
complaint  as  soon  as  some  additional  proof,  now 
being  sought,  should  come  to  hand. 

Ethel  clapped  her  hands.  "And  Horace  Boyce 
will  go  to  prison,  then?"  she  asked,  eagerly. 

"  There  is  a  strong  case  against  him,"  answered 
Reuben. 

The  graveness  of  his  tone  affected  the  girl's  spirits, 
and  led  her  to  say  in  an  altered  voice  :  "  I  don't 
want  to  be  unkind,  and  I  daresay  I  shall  be  silly 
enough  to  cry  in  private  if  the  thing  really  happens  ; 
but  when  I  think  of  the  trouble  and  wickedness  he 
has  been  responsible  for,  and  of  the  far  more  terrible 


39°  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

mischief  he  might  have  wrought  in  this  family  if  I — 
that  is,  if  we  had  not  come  to  you  as  we  did,  I  sim 
ply  hate  him." 

"  Don't  let  us  talk  about   him   any  more,  puss," 
said  Kate,  soberly,  rising  as  she  spoke. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
JESSICA'S  GREAT  DESPAIR. 

IT  was  on  the  following  day  that  a  less  important 
member  of  society  than  Miss  Minster  resolved  to 
also  pay  a  visit  to  the  milliner's  shop. 

Ben  Lawton's  second  wife — for  she  herself  scarcely 
thought  of  "  Mrs.  Lawton  "  as  a  title  appertaining  to 
her  condition  of  ill-requited  servitude — had  become 
possessed  of  some  new  clothes.  Their  monetary 
value  was  not  large,  but  they  were  warm  and  re 
spectable,  with  bugle  trimming  on  the  cloak,  and 
a  feather  rising  out  of  real  velvet  on  the  bonnet ; 
and  they  were  new  all  together  at  the  same  time,  a 
fact  which  impressed  her  mind  by  its  novelty  even 
more  than  did  the  inherent  charm  of  acquisition. 

To  go  out  in  this  splendid  apparel  was  an  obvious 
duty.  Where  to  go  was  less  clear.  The  notion  of 
going  shopping  loomed  in  the  background  of  Mrs. 
Lawton's  thoughts  for  a  while,  but  in  a  formless  and 
indistinct  way,  and  then  disappeared  again.  Her 
mind  was  not  civilized  enough  to  assimilate  the  idea 
of  loitering  around  among  the  stores  when  she  had 
no  money  with  which  to  buy  anything. 

Gradually  the  conception  of  a  visit  to  her  step 
daughter  Jessica  took  shape  in  her  imagination. 


392  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Perhaps  the  fact  that  she  owed  her  new  clothes  to 
the  bounty  of  this  girl  helped  forward  this  decision. 
There  was  also  a  certain  curiosity  to  see  the  child 
who  was  Ben's  grandson,  and  so  indirectly  related 
to  her,  and  for  whose  anomalous  existence  there  was 
more  than  one  precedent  in  her  own  family,  and 
who  might  turn  out  to  resemble  her  own  little  lost 
Alonzo.  But  the  consideration  which  primarily  dic 
tated  her  choice  was  that  there  was  no  other  place 
to  go  to. 

Her  reception  by  Jessica,  when  she  finally  found 
her  way  by  Samantha's  complicated  directions  to 
the  shop,  was  satisfactorily  cordial.  She  was  allowed 
to  linger  for  a  time  in  the  show-room,  and  satiate 
bewilderment  over  the  rich  plumes  and  multi-colored 
velvets  and  ribbons  there  displayed ;  then  she  "was 
taken  into  the  domestic  part  of  the  building,  where 
she  was  asked  like  a  real  visitor  to  take  off  her 
cloak  and  bonnet,  and  sat  down  to  enjoy  the  un 
heard-of  luxury  of  seeing  somebody  else  getting  a 
"  meal  of  victuals"  ready.  The  child  was  playing  by 
himself  back  of  the  stove  with  some  blocks.  He 
seemed  to  take  no  interest  in  his  new  relation,  and 
Mrs.  Lawton  saw  that  if  Alonzo  had  lived  he  would 
not  have  looked  like  this  boy,  who  was  blonde 
and  delicate,  with  serious  eyes  and  flaxen  curls,  and 
a  high,  rather  protuberant  forehead. 

The  brevet  grandmother  heard  with  surprise  from 
Lucinda  that  this  five-year-old  child  already  knew 
most  of  his  letters.  She  stole  furtive  glances  at  him 
after  this,  from  time  to  time,  and  as  soon  as  Jessica 


Jessicas  Great  Despair.  393 

had  gone  out  into  the  store  and  closed  the  door  she 
asked  : 

"  Don't  his  head  look  to  you  like  water  on  the 
brain  ?  " 

Lucinda  shook  her  head  emphatically:  "  He's 
healthy  enough,"  she  said. 

"  And  his  name's  Horace,  you  say?" 

"  Yes,  that's  what  I  said,"  replied  the  girl. 

Mrs.  Lawton  burned  to  ask  what  other  name  the 
lad  bore,  but  the  peremptory  tones  of  her  daughter 
warned  her  off.  Instead  she  remarked:  "And  so 
he's  been  livin'  in  Tecumseh  all  this  while?  They 
seem  to  have  brung  him  up  pretty  good — teachin' 
him  his  A  B  C's  and  curlin'  his  hair." 

<l  He  had  a  good  home.  Jess  paid  high,  and  the 
people  took  a  liking  to  him,"  said  Lucinda. 

"  I  s'pose  they  died  or  broke  up  housekeeping" 
tentatively  suggested  Mrs.  Lawton. 

"  No  :  Jess  wanted  him  here,  or  thought  she  did." 
Luanda's  loyalty  to  her  sister  prompted  her  to  stop 
the  explanation  at  this.  But  she  herself  had  been 
sorely  puzzled  and  tried  by  the  change  which  had 
come  over  the  little  household  since  the  night  of 
the  boy's  arrival,  and  the  temptation  to  put  some 
thing  of  this  into  words  was  too  strong  to  be 
mastered. 

"  I  wish  myself  he  hadn't  come  at  all,"  she  contin 
ued  from  the  table  where  she  was  at  work.  "  Not 
but  that  he's  a  good  enough  young-one,  and  lots  of 
company  for  us  both,  but  Jess  ain't  been  herself  at  all 
since  she  brought  him  here.  It  ain't  his  fault — poor 


394  The  Laivton  Girl. 

little  chap — but  she  fetched  him  from  Tecumseh  on 
account  of  something  special  ;  and  then  that  some 
thing  didn't  seem  to  come  off,  and  she's  as  blue  as  a 
whetstone  about  it,  and  that  makes  everything  blue. 
And  there  we  are  !  " 

Lucinda  finished  in  a  sigh,  and  proceeded  to  rub 
grease  on  the  inside  of  her  cake  tins  with  a  gloomy  air. 

In  the  outer  shop,  Jessica  found  herself  standing 
surprised  and  silent  before  the  sudden  apparition  of 
a  visitor  whom  she  had  least  of  all  expected — Miss 
Kate  Minster. 

The  bell  which  formerly  jangled  when  the  street 
door  opened  had  been  taken  off  because  it  inter 
fered  with  the  child's  mid-day  sleep,  and  Jessica 
herself  had  been  so  deeply  lost  in  a  brown  study 
where  she  sat  sewing  behind  the  counter  that  she  had 
not  noted  the  entrance  of  the  young  lady  until  she 
stood  almost  within  touch.  Then  she  rose  hurriedly, 
and  stood  confused  and  tongue-tied,  her  work  in 
hand.  She  dropped  this  impediment  when  Miss 
Minster  offered  to  shake  hands  with  her,  but  even 
this  friendly  greeting  did  not  serve  to  restore  her 
self-command  or  induce  a  smile. 

"  I  have  a  thousand  apologies  to  make  for  leav 
ing  you  alone  all  this  while,"  said  Kate.  "  But — we 
have  been  so  troubled  of  late — and,  selfish  like,  I 
have  forgotten  everything  else.  Or  no — I  won't  say 
that — for  I  have  thought  a  great  deal  about  you  and 
your  work.  And  now  you  must  tell  me  all  about 
both." 


Jessica  s  Great  Despair.  395 

Miss  Minster  had  seated  herself  as  she  spoke, 
and  loosened  the  boa  about  her  throat,  but  Jessica 
remained  standing.  She  idly  noted  that  no  equi 
page  and  coachman  were  in  waiting  outside,  and  let 
the  comment  drift  to  her  tongue.  "  You  walked,  I 
see,"  she  said. 

"Yes,"  replied  Kate.  "  It  isn't  pleasant  to  take 
out  the  horses  now.  The  streets  are  full  of  men 
out  of  work,  and  they  blame  us  for  it,  and  to  see 
us  drive  about  seems  to  make  them  angry.  I  sup 
pose  it's  a  natural  enough  feeling ;  but  the  boys 
pelted  our  coachman  with  snowballs  the  other  day, 
while  my  sister  and  I  were  driving,  and  the  men  on 
the  corner  all  laughed  and  encouraged  them.  But  if 
I  walk  nobody  molests  me," 

The  young  lady,  as  she  said  this  with  an  air  of 
modest  courage,  had  never  looked  so  beautiful  before 
in  Jessica's  eyes,  or  appealed  so  powerfully  to  her  lik 
ing  and  admiration.  But  the  milliner  was  conscious 
of  an  invasion  of  other  and  rival  feelings  which 
kept  her  face  smileless  and  hardened  the  tone  of  her 
voice. 

11  Yes,  the  men  feel  very  bitterly,"  she  said.  "  I 
know  that  from  the  girls.  A  good  many  of  them — 
pretty  nearly  all,  for  that  matter — have  stopped 
coming  here,  since  the  lockout,  because  your  money 
furnished  the  Resting  House.  That  shows  how 
strong  the  feeling  is." 

"  You  amaze  me  !  " 

There  was  no  pretence  in  Miss  Kate's  emotion. 
She  looked  at  Jessica  with  wide-open  eyes,  and  the 


396  The  Lawton  Girl. 

astonishment  in  the  gaze  visibly  softened  and  sad 
dened  into  genuine  pain.  "Oh,  \  am  so  sorry  !"  she 
said.  "  I  never  thought  of  that.  Tell  me — what 
can  be  done  ?  How  can  we  get  that  cruel  notion 
out  of  their  heads  ?  I  did  so  truly  want  to  help  the 
girls.  Surely  there  must  be  some  way  of  making 
them  realize  this.  The  closing  of  the  works,  that 
is  a  business  matter  with  which  I  had  nothing  to  do, 
and  which  I  didn't  approve;  but  this  plan  of  yours, 
that  was  really  a  pet  of  mine.  It  is  only  by  a  stupid 
accident  that  I  did  not  come  here  often,  and  get 
to  know  the  girls,  and  show  them  how  interested  I 
was  in  everything.  When  Mr.  Tracy  spoke  of  you 
yesterday,  I  resolved  to  come  at  once,  and  tell  you 
how  ashamed  I  was." 

Jessica's  heart  was  deeply  stirred  by  this  speech, 
and  filled  with  yearnings  of  tenderness  toward  the 
beautiful  and  good  patrician.  But  some  strange, 
undefined  force  in  her  mind  held  all  this  softness  in 
subjection. 

"The  girls  are  gone,"  she  said,  almost  coldly. 
"  They  will  not  come  back — at  least  for  a  long  time, 
until  all  this  trouble  is  forgotten." 

"They  hate  me  too  much,"  groaned  Kate,  in 
grieved  self-abasement. 

"They  don't  know  you!  What  they  think  of  is 
that  it  is  the  Minster  money;  that  is  what  they  hate. 
To  take  away  from  the  men  with  a  shovel,  and  give 
back  to  the  girls  with  a  spoon — they  won't  stand 
that!"  The  latent  class-feeling  of  a  factory  town 
flamed  up  in  Jessica's  bosom,  intolerant  and  vengeful, 


Jessica  s  Great  Despair.  397 

as  she  listened  to  her  own  words.  "  I  would  feel 
like  that  myself,  if  I  were  in  their  place,"  she  said,  in 
curt  conclusion. 

The  daughter  of  the  millions  sat  for  a  little  in  pained 
irresolution.  She  was  conscious  of  impulses  toward 
anger  at  the  coldness,  almost  the  rudeness,  of  this  girl 
whom  she  had  gone  far  out  of  and  beneath  her  way 
to  assist.  Her  own  class-feeling,  too,  subtly  prompted 
her  to  dismiss  with  contempt  the  thought  of  these 
thick-fingered,  uncouth  factory-girls  who  were  reject 
ing  her  well-meant  bounty.  But  kindlier  feelings 
strove  within  her  mind,  too,  and  kept  her  for  the 
moment  undecided, 

She  looked  up  at  Jessica,  as  if  in  search  for  help, 
and  her  woman's  heart  suddenly  told  her  that  the 
changes  in  the  girl's  face,  vaguely  apparent  to  her 
before,  were  the  badges  of  grief  and  unrest.  All  the 
annoyance  she  had  been  nursing  fled  on  the  instant. 
Her  eyes  moistened,  and  she  laid  her  hand  softly  on 
the  other's  arm. 

"  You  at  least  mustn't  think  harshly  of  me,"  she 
said  with  a  smile.  "That  would  be  too  sad.  I 
would  give  a  great  deal  if  the  furnaces  could  be 
opened  to-morrow — if  they  had  never  been  shut. 
Not  even  the  girls  whose  people  are  out  of  work 
feel  more  deeply  about  the  thing  than  I  do.  But — 
after  all,  time  must  soon  set  that  right.  Tell  me 
about  yourself.  You  are  not  looking  well.  Is  there 
nothing  I  can  do  for  you  ?  " 

An  answering  moisture  came  into  Jessica's  eyes  as 
she  met  the  other's  look.  She  shook  her  head,  and 


39$  The  Lawton  Girl. 

withdrew  her  wrist  from  the  kindly  pressure  of  Kate's 
hand. 

"  I  spoke  of  you  at  length  with  Mr.  Tracy,"  Kate 
went  on,  gently.  "  Do  believe  that  we  are  both  anx 
ious  to  do  all  we  can  for  you,  in  whatever  form  you 
like.  You  have  never  spoken  about  more  money 
for  the  Resting  House.  Isn't  your  store  about  ex 
hausted  ?  If  it  is,  don't  hesitate  for  a  moment  to 
let  me  know.  And  mayn't  I  go  and  see  the  house, 
now  that  I  am  here  ?  You  know  I  have  never  been 
inside  it  once  since  you  took  it." 

For  a  second  or  two  Jessica  hesitated.  It  cost 
her  a  great  deal  to  maintain  the  unfriendly  attitude 
she  had  taken  up,  and  she  was  hopelessly  at  sea  as 
to  why  she  was  paying  this  price  for  unalloyed  un- 
happiness.  Yet  still  she  persisted  doggedly,  and  as 
it  were  in  spite  of  herself. 

"  It's  a  good  deal  run  down  just  now,"  she  said. 
"  Since  the  trouble  came,  Lucinda  and  I  haven't  kept 
it  up.  You'd  like  better  to  see  it  some  time  when  it 
was  in  order ;  that  is,  if  I — if  it  isn't  given  up  alto 
gether  !  " 

The  despairing  intonation  of  these  closing  words 
was  not  lost  upon  Kate.  She  looked  up  quickly. 

"  Why  do  you  speak  like  that?"  she  said.  "Are 
you  discouraged,  Jessica?  Oh,  I  hope  it  isn't  as  bad 
as  that  !  " 

"  I'm  thinking  a  good  deal  of  going  away.  You 
and  Miss  Wilcox  can  put  somebody  else  here,  and 
keep  open  the  house.  It  doesn't  need  me.  My 
heart  isn't  in  it  any  more." 


ressicas  Great  Despair.  399 

The  girl  forced  herself  through  these  words  with  a 
mournful  effort.  The  hot  tears  came  to  her  eyes 
before  she  had  finished,  and  she  turned  away 
abruptly,  walking  behind  the  counter  to  the  front  of 
the  shop. 

Miss  Minster  rose  and  went  to  her.  "  There  is 
something  you  are  not  telling  me,  my  child,"  she 
urged  with  tender  earnestness.  "  What  is  it  ?  Are 
you  in  trouble?  Tell  me.  Let  me  help  you  !" 

"There  is  nothing — nothing  at  all,"  Jessica  made 
answer.  "  Only  I  am  not  happy  here.  It  was  a 
mistake  to  come.  And  there  are — other  things — 
that  were  a  mistake,  too." 

"  Why  not  confide  in  me,  dear?  Why  not  let  me 
help  you  ?  " 

"How  could  you  help  me?"  The  girl  spoke 
with  momentary  impatience.  "  There  are  things 
that  money  can't  help." 

The  rich  young  lady  drew  herself  up  instinctively, 
and  tightened  the  fur  about  her  neck.  The  words 
affected  her  almost  like  an  affront. 

"  I'm  very  sorry,"  she  said,  with  an  obvious  cool 
ing  of  manner.  "  I  did  not  mean  money  alone.  I 
had  hoped  you  felt  I  was  your  friend.  And  I  still 
want  to  be,  if  occasion  arises.  I  shall  be  very  much 
grieved,  indeed,  if  you  do  not  let  me  know,  at  any 
and  all  times,  when  I  can  be  of  use  to  you." 

She  held  out  her  hand,  evidently  as  an  indication 
that  she  was  going.  Jessica  saw  the  hand  through 
a  mist  of  smarting  tears,  and  took  it,  not  daring  to 
look  up.  She  was  filled  with  longings  to  kiss  this 


4OO  The  Lawton  Girl. 

hand,  to  cry  out  for  forgiveness,  to  cast  herself  upon 
the  soft  shelter  of  this  sweet  friendship,  so  sweetly 
proffered.  But  there  was  some  strange  spell  which 
held  her  back,  and,  still  through  the  aching  film  of 
tears,  she  saw  the  gloved  hand  withdrawn.  A  soft 
"  good-by  "  spread  its  pathos  upon  the  silence  about 
her,  and  then  Miss  Minster  was  gone. 

Jessica  stood  for  a  time,  looking  blankly  into  the 
street.  Then  she  turned  and  walked  with  uncon 
scious  directness,  as  in  a  dream,  through  the  back 
rooms  and  across  the  yard  to  the  Resting  House. 
She  had  passed  her  stepmother,  her  sister,  and  her 
child  without  bestowing  a  glance  upon  them,  and 
she  wandered  now  through  the  silent  building  aim 
lessly,  without  power  to  think  of  what  she  saw. 
Although  the  furniture  was  still  of  the  most  primi 
tive  and  unpretentious  sort,  there  were  many  little  ap 
pliances  for  the  comfort  of  the  girls,  in  which  she  had 
1  had  much  innocent  delight.  The  bath-rooms  on  the 
upper  floor,  the  willow  rocking-chairs  in  the  sitting- 
room,  the  neat  row  of  cups  and  saucers  in  the  glass- 
faced  cupboard,  the  magazines  and  pattern  books 
on  the  table — all  these  it  had  given  her  pleasure  to 
contemplate  only  a  fortnight  ago.  Now  they  were 
nothing  to  her.  She  noted  that  the  fire  in  the  base- 
burner  had  gone  out,  though  the  reservoir  still 
seemed  full  of  coal.  She  was  conscious  of  a  vague 
sense  of  fitness  in  its  having  gone  out.  The  fire  that 
had  burned  within  her  heart  was  in  ashes,  too.  She 
put  her  apron  to  her  eyes  and  wept  vehemently, 
here  in  solitude. 


Jessica  s  Great  Despair.  401 

Luanda  came  out,  nearly  an  hour  later,  to  find 
her  sister  sitting  disconsolate  by  the  fireless  stove, 
shivering  with  the  cold,  and  staring  into  vacancy. 

She  put  her  broad  arm  with  maternal  kindness 
around  Jessica's  waist,  and  led  her  unresisting  toward 
the  door.  "  Never  mind,  sis,"  she  murmured,  with 
clumsy  sympathy.  "  Come  in  and  play  with  Hor 
ace." 

Jessica,  shuddering  again  with  the  chill,  buried 
her  face  on  her  sister's  shoulder,  and  wept  supinely. 
There  was  not  an  atom  of  courage  remaining  in  her 
heart. 

"  You  are  low  down  and  miserable,"  pursued  Lu- 
cinda,  compassionately.  "  I'll  make  you  up  some 
boneset  tea.  It'll  be  lucky  if  you  haven't  caught 
your  death  a-cold  out  here  so  long."  She  had  taken 
a  shawl,  which  hung  in  the  hallway,  and  wrapped  it 
about  her  sister's  shoulders. 

"  I  half  wish  I  had,"  sobbed  Jessica.  "  There's  no 
fight  left  in  me  any  more." 

"What's  the  matter,  anyway?" 

"  If  I  knew  myself,"  the  girl  groaned  in  answer, 
"perhaps   I   could   do  something;  but  I  don't.      I 
can't  think,  I  can't  eat  or  sleep  or  work.     O  God  ! 
what  is  the  matter  with  me  ? " 
26 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

A   STRANGE   ENCOUNTER. 

A  SOMBRE  excitement  reigned  in  Thessaly  next 
day,  when  it  became  known  that  the  French-Cana 
dian  workmen  whom  the  rolling-mill  people  were 
importing  would  arrive  in  the  village  within  the 
next  few  hours.  They  were  coming  through  from 
Massachusetts,  and  watchful  eyes  at  Troy  had  noted 
their  temporary  halt  there  and  the  time  of  the  train 
they  took  westward.  The  telegraph  sped  forward 
the  warning,  and  fully  a  thousand  idle  men  in  Thes 
saly  gathered  about  the  d6pot,  both  inside  and  on 
the  street  without,  to  witness  the  unwelcome  advent. 

Some  indefinite  rumors  of  the  sensation  reached 
the  secluded  milliner's  shop  on  the  back  street,  dur 
ing  the  day.  Ben  Lawton  drifted  in  to  warm  him 
self  during  the  late  forenoon,  and  told  of  the  stirring 
scenes  that  were  expected.  He  was  quick  to  observe 
that  Jessica  was  not  looking  well,  and  adjured  her  to 
be  careful  about  the  heavy  cold  which  she  said  she 
had  taken.  The  claims  upon  him  of  the  excitement 
outside  were  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  but  he  prom 
ised  to  look  in  during  the  afternoon  and  tell  them 
the  news. 

The  daylight  of  the  November  afternoon  was  be- 


A  Strange  Encounter.  403 

ginning  imperceptibly  to  wane  before  any  further  tid 
ings  of  the  one  topic  of  great  public  interest  reached 
the  sisters.  One  of  the  better  class  of  factory-girls 
came  in  to  gossip  with  Lucinda,  and  she  brought  with 
her  a  veritable  budget  of  information.  The  French 
Canadians  had  arrived,  and  with  them  came  some 
Pinkerton  detectives,  or  whatever  they  were  called, 
who  were  said  to  be  armed  to  the  teeth.  The 
crowd  had  fiercely  hooted  these  newcomers  and 
their  guards,  and  there  had  been  a  good  deal  of 
angry  hustling.  For  awhile  it  looked  as  if  a  fight 
must  ensue ;  but,  somehow,  it  did  not  come  off. 
The  Canadians,  in  a  body,  had  gone  with  their  escort 
to  the  row  of  new  cottages  which  the  company  had 
hired  for  them,  followed  by  a  diminishing  throng  of 
hostile  men  and  boys.  There  were  numerous  per 
sonal  incidents  to  relate,  and  the  two  sisters  listened 
with  deep  interest  to  the  whole  recital. 

When  it  was  finished  the  girl  still  sat  about,  evi 
dently  with  something  on  her  mind.  At  last,  with 
a  blunt  "  Can  I  speak  to  you  for  a  moment?"  she 
led  Jessica  out  into  the  shop.  There,  in  a  whisper, 
with  repeated  affirmations  and  much  detail,  she  im 
parted  the  confidential  portion  of  her  intelligence. 

The  effect  of  this  information  upon  Jessica  was 
marked  and  immediate.  As  soon  as  the  girl  had 
gone  she  hastened  to  the  living-room,  and  began 
hurriedly  putting  on  her  boots.  The  effort  of 
stooping  to  button  them  made  her  feverish  head 
ache,  and  she  was  forced  to  call  the  amazed  Lu 
cinda  to  her  assistance. 


404  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  You're  crazy  to  think  of  going  out  such  a  day  as 
this,"  protested  the  girl,  "  and  you  with  such  a  cold, 
too." 

''It's  got-  to  be  done,"  said  Jessica,  her  eyes  burn 
ing  with  eagerness,  and  her  cheeks  flushed.  "  If  it 
killed  me,  it  would  have  to  be  done.  But  I'll  bundle 
up  warm.  Don't  worry  about  me.  I'll  be  all  right." 

Refusing  to  listen  to  further  dissuasion  she  hastily 
put  on  her  hat  and  cloak,  and  then  with  nervous 
rapidity  wrote  a  note,  sealed  it  up  tightly  with  an 
envelope,  and  marked  on  it,  with  great  plainness, 
the  address  :  "  Miss  Kate  Minster." 

"  Give  this  to  father  when  he  comes,"  she  cried, 
"  and  tell  him — 

Ben  Lawton's  appearance  at  the  door  interrupted 
the  directions.  He  was  too  excited  about  the  events 
of  the  day  to  be  surprised  at  seeing  the  daughter  he 
had  left  an  invalid  now  dressed  for  the  street  ;  but 
she  curtly  stopped  the  narrative  which  he  began. 

"  We've  heard  all  about  it,"  she  said.  "  I  want 
you  to  come  with  me  now." 

LucLnda  watched  the  dominant  sister  drag  on  and 
button  her  gloves  with  apprehension  and  solicitude 
written  all  over  her  honest  face.  "  Now,  do  be  care 
ful,"  she  repeated  more  than  once. 

As  Jessica  said  "  I'm  ready  now,"  and  turned  to 
join  her  father,  the  little  boy  came  into  the  shop 
through  the  open  door  of  the  living-room.  A  swift 
instinct  prompted  the  mother  to  go  to  him  and  stoop 
to  kiss  him  on  the  forehead.  The  child  smiled  at 
her;  and  when  she  was  out  in  the  street,  walking  so 


A  Strange  Encounter.  405 

hurriedly  that  her  father  found  the  gait  unprece 
dented  in  his  languid  experience,  she  still  dwelt 
curiously  in  her  mind  upon  the  sweetness  of  that 
infantile  smile. 

And  this,  by  some  strange  process,  suddenly 
brought  clearness  and  order  to  her  thoughts. 
Under  the  stress  of  this  nervous  tension,  perhaps 
because  of  the  illness  which  she  felt  in  every  bone, 
yet  which  seemed  to  clarify  her  senses,  her  mind  was 
all  at  once  working  without  confusion. 

She  saw  now  that  what  had  depressed  her,  over 
thrown  her  self-control,  impelled  her  to  reject  the 
kindness  of  Miss  Minster,  had  been  the  humani- 
zation,  so  to  speak,  of  her  ideal,  Reuben  Tracy. 
The  bare  thought  of  his  marrying  and  giving  in  mar 
riage — of  his  being  in  love  with  the  rich  girl — this  it 
was  that  had  so  strangely  disturbed  her.  Looking 
at  it  now,  it  was  the  most  foolish  thing  in  the  world. 
What  on  earth  had  she  to  do  with  Reuben  Tracy? 
There  could  never  conceivably  have  entered  her 
head  even  the  most  vagrant  and  transient  notion 
that  he — no,  she  would  not  put  that  thought  into 
form,  even  in  her  own  mind.  And  were  there  two 
young  people  in  all  the  world  who  had  more  claim 
to  her  good  wishes  than  Reuben  and  Kate?  She 
answered  this  heartily  in  the  negative,  and  said  to 
herself  that  she  truly  was  glad  that  they  loved  each 
other.  Yes,  she  was  glad  !  She  bit  her  lips,  and 
insisted  on  repeating  this  to  her  own  thoughts. 

But  why,  then,  had  the  discovery  of  this  so 
unnerved  her?  She  answered  the  question  only 


406  The  Lawton  Girl. 

vaguely.  It  must  have  been  because  the  idea  of 
their  happiness  made  the  isolation  of  her  own  life 
so  miserably  clear  ;  because  she  felt  that  they  had 
forgotten  her  and  her  work  in  their  new-found  con 
cern  for  each  other.  Yes,  that  would  be  the  reason. 
She  was  all  over  that  weak  folly  now.  She  had  it  in 
her  power  to  help  them,  and  dim,  half-formed  wishes 
that  she  might  give  life  itself  to  their  service  flitted 
across  her  mind. 

She  had  spoken  never  a  word  to  her  father  all  this 
while,  and  had  seemed  to  take  no  note  either  of 
direction  or  of  what  and  whom  she  passed  ;  but  she 
stopped  now  in  front  of  the  doorway  in  Main  Street 
which  bore  the  law-sign  of  Reuben  Tracy.  "  Wait 
for  me  here,"  she  said  to  Ben,  and  disappeared  up 
the  staircase. 

Jessica  made  her  way  with  some  difficulty  up  the 
second  flight.  Her  head  burned  with  the  exertion, 
and  there  was  a  novel  numbness  in  her  limbs  ;  but 
she  gave  this  only  a  passing  thought. 

The  door  of  the  office  was  locked.  On  the  panel 
was  tacked  a  white  half-sheet  of  paper.  It  was  not 
easy  to  decipher  the  inscription  in  the  failing  light, 
but  she  finally  made  it  out  to  be: 

"  Called  away  until  noon  to-morrow  (Friday)" 

The  girl  leaned  against  the  door-sill  for  support. 
In  the  first  moment  or  two  it  seemed  to  her  that  she 
was  going  to  swoon.  Then  resolution  came  back  to 
her,  and  with  it  a  new  store  of  strength,  and  she  went 
down  the  stairs  again  slowly  and  in  terrible  doubt  as 
to  what  should  now  be  done. 


A  Strange  Encounter.  407 

The  memory  suddenly  came  to  her  of  the  one 
other  time  she  had  been  in  this  stairway,  when 
she  had  stood  in  the  darkness  with  her  little  boy, 
gathered  up  against  the  wall  to  allow  the  two  Min 
ster  ladies  to  pass.  Upon  the  heels  of  this  chased 
the  recollection — with  such  lack  of  sequence  do  our 
thoughts  follow  one  another — of  the  singularly  sweet 
smile  her  little  boy  had  bestowed  upon  her,  half  an 
hour  since,  when  she  kissed  him. 

The  smile  had  lingered  in  her  mind  as  a  beautiful 
picture.  Walking  down  the  stairs  now,  in  the  deep 
ening  shadows,  the  revelation  dawned  upon  her  all 
at  once — it  was  his  father's  smile!  Yes,  yes — hur 
riedly  the  fancy  reared  itself  in  her  thoughts — thus 
the  lover  of  her  young  girlhood  had  looked  upon 
her.  The  delicate,  clever  face  ;  the  prettily  arched 
lips  ;  the  soft,  light  curls  upon  the  forehead  ;  the 
tenderly  beaming  blue  eyes — all  were  the  same. 

Often — alas  !  very  often — this  resemblance  had 
forced  itself  upon  her  consciousness  before.  But 
now,  lighted  up  by  that  chance  babyish  smile,  it 
came  to  her  in  the  guise  of  a  novelty,  and  with  a 
certain  fascination  in  it.  Her  head  seemed  to  have 
ceased  to  ache,  now  that  this  almost  pleasant  thought 
had  entered  it.  It  was  passing  strange,  she  felt,  that 
any  sense  of  comfort  should  exist  for  her  in  memo 
ries  which  had  fed  her  soul  upon  bitterness  for  so 
long  a  time.  Yet  it  was  already  on  the  instant  ap 
parent  to  her  that  when  she  should  next  have  time 
to  think,  that  old  episode  would  assume  less  hateful 
aspects  than  it  had  always  presented  before. 


408  The  Lawton  Girl. 

But  now  there  was  no  time  to  think. 

At  the  street  door  she  found  her  father  leaning 
against  a  shutter  and  discussing  the  events  of  the 
day  with  the  village  lamplighter,  who  carried  a  ladder 
on  his  shoulder,  and  reported  great  popular  agitation 
to  exist. 

Jessica  beckoned  Ben  summarily  aside,  and  put 
into  his  hands  the  letter  she  had  written  at  the  shop. 
"  I  want  you  to  take  this  at  once  to  Miss  Minster, 
at  her  house,"  she  said,  hurriedly.  "  See  to  it  that 
she  gets  it  herself.  Be  sure  you  wait  for  an  answer. 
Don't  say  a  word  to  any  living  soul.  Do  just  what 
she  tells  you  to  do.  I've  said  you  can  be  depended 
upon.  If  you  show  yourself  a  man,  it  may  make 
your  fortune.  Now,  hurry ;  and  I  do  hope  you  will 
do  me  credit! " 

Under  the  spur  of  this  surprising  exhortation, 
Ben  walked  away  with  unexampled  rapidity,  until 
he  had  overtaken  the  lamplighter,  from  whom  he 
borrowed  some  chewing  tobacco. 

The  girl,  left  to  herself,  began  walking  irresolutely 
down  Main  Street.  The  flaring  lights  in  the  store 
windows  seemed  to  add  to  the  confusion  of  her 
mind.  It  had  appeared  to  be  important  to  send  her 
father  away  at  once,  but  now  she  began  to  regret 
that  she  had  not  kept  him  to  help  her  in  her 
search.  For  Reuben  Tracy  must  be  found  at  all 
hazards. 

How  to  go  to  work  to  trace  him  she  did  not 
know.  She  had  no  notion  whatever  as  to  who 
his  intimate  friends  were.  The  best  device  she 


A  Strange  Encounter.  409 

could  think  of  would  be  to  ask  about  him  at  the 
various  law-offices  ;  for  she  had  heard  that  however 
much  lawyers  might  pretend  to  fight  one  another  in 
court,  they  were  all  on  very  good  terms  outside. 

Some  little  distance  down  the  street  she  came 
upon  the  door  of  another  stairway  which  bore  a 
number  of  lawyers'  signs.  The  windows  all  up  the 
front  of  this  building  were  lighted,  and  without 
further  examination  she  ascended  the  first  flight  of 
stairs.  The  landing  was  almost  completely  dark, 
but  an  obscured  gleam  came  from  the  dusty  tran 
soms  over  three  or  four  doors  close  about  her.  She 
knocked  on  one  of  these  at  random,  and  in  response 
to  an  inarticulate  vocal  sound  from  within,  opened 
the  door  and  entered. 

It  was  a  square,  medium-sized  room  in  which  she 
found  herself,  with  a  long,  paper-littered  table  in  the 
centre,  and  tall  columns  of  light  leather-covered 
books  rising  along  the  walls.  At'the  opposite  end 
of  the  chamber  a  man  sat  at  a  desk,  his  back  turned 
to  her,  his  elbows  on  the  desk,  and  his  head  in  his 
hands.  The  shaded  light  in  front  of  him  made  a 
mellow  golden  fringe  around  the  outline  of  his 
hair. 

A  sudden  bewildering  tumult  burst  forth  in  the 
girl's  breast  as  she  looked  at  this  figure.  Then,  as 
suddenly,  the  recurring  mental  echoes  of  the  voice 
which  had  bidden  her  enter  rose  above  this  tumult 
and  stilled  it.  A  gentle  and  comforting  warmth 
stole  through  her  veins.  This  was  Horace  Boyce 
who  sat  there  before  her — and  she  did  not  hate  him  ! 


410  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

During  that  instant  in  which  she  stood  by  the 
door,  a  whole  flood  of  self-illumination  flashed  its 
rays  into  every  recess  of  her  mind.  This,  then,  was 
the  strange,  formless  opposing  impulse  which  had 
warred  with  the  other  in  her  heart  for  this  last 
miserable  fortnight,  and  dragged  her  nearly  to  dis 
traction.  She  recognized  it  now,  and  welcomed 
it. 

The  bringing  home  of  her  boy  had  revived  for 
her,  by  occult  and  subtle  processes,  the  old  romance 
in  which  his  father  had  been  framed,  as  might  a  hero 
be  by  sunlit  clouds.  She  hugged  the  thought  to 
her  heart,  and  stood  looking  at  him  motionless  and 
mute. 

"  Well,  who  is  it?  What  is  wanted?"  he  called 
out,  querulously,  without  changing  his  posture. 

Jessica  moved  slowly  toward  him.  It  was  as  if  a 
magic  voice  drew  her  forward  in  a  dream — herself  all 
rapt  and  dumb. 

Irritably  impressed  by  the  continued  silence,  Hor 
ace  lifted  his  head,  and  swung  abruptly  around  in 
his  chair.  His  own  shadow  obscured  the  features 
of  his  visitor.  He  saw  only  that  it  was  a  lady,  and 
rose  hesitatingly  to  his  feet. 

"  Excuse  me,"  he  mumbled,  "  I  was  busy  with  my 
thoughts,  and  did  not  know  who  it  was." 

"  Do  you  know  now  ?  "  Jessica  heard  herself  ask, 
as  in  a  trance.  The  balmy  warmth  in  her  own  heart 
told  her  that  she  was  smiling. 

Horace  took  a  step  or  two  obliquely  forward,  so 
that  the  light  fell  on  her  face.  He  peered  with  a 


A  Strange  Encounter.  411 

confounded  gaze  at  her  for  a  moment,  then  let  his 
arms  fall  limp  at  his  sides. 

"  In  the  name  of  the  dev — "  he  began,  con 
fusedly,  and  then  bit  the  word  short,  and  stared  at 
her  again.  "Is  it  really  you  ? "  he  asked  at  last, 
reassured  in  part  by  her  smile. 

"Are  you  sorry  to  see  me?"  she  asked  in  turn. 
Her  mind  could  frame  nothing  but  these  soft  little 
meaningless  queries. 

The  young  man  seemed  in  doubt  how  best  to 
answer  this  question.  He  turned  around  and  looked 
abstractedly  at  his  desk  ;  then  with  a  slight  detour 
he  walked  past  her,  opened  the  door,  and  glanced 
up  and  down  the  dark  stairway.  When  he  had 
closed  the  door  once  more,  he  turned  the  key  in 
the  lock,  and  then,  after  momentary  reflection,  con 
cluded  to  unlock  it  again. 

"Why,  no;  why  should  I  be?"  he  said  in  a  more 
natural  voice,  as  he  returned  and  stood  beside  her. 
Evidently  her  amiability  was  a  more  difficult  sur 
prise  for  him  to  master  than  her  original  advent,  and 
he  studied  her  face  with  increasing  directness  of  gaze 
to  make  sure  of  it. 

"  Come  and  sit  down  here,"  he  said,  after  a  few 
moments  of  this  puzzled  inspection,  and  resumed 
his  own  chair.  "  I  want  a  good  look  at  you," 
he  explained,  as  he  lifted  the  shade  from  the 
lamp. 

Jessica  felt  that  she  was  blushing  under  this  new 
radiance,  and  it  required  an  effort  to  return  his 
glance.  But,  when  she  did  so,  the  changes  in  his 


412  The  Law  ton  Girl. 

face  and  expression  which  it  revealed  drove  every 
thing  else  from  her  mind.  She  rose  from  her  chair 
upon  a  sudden  impulse,  and  bent  over  him  at  a 
diffident  distance.  As  she  did  so,  she  had  the  feeling 
that  this  bitterness  in  which  she  had  encased  herself 
for  years  had  dropped  from  her  on  the  instant  like  a 
discarded  garment. 

"  Why,  Horace,  your  hair  is  quite  gray  !  "  she  said, 
as  if  the  fact  contained  the  sublimation  of  pathos. 

"  There's  been  trouble  enough  to  turn  it  white 
twenty  times  over  !  You  don't  know  what  I've  been 
through,  my  girl,"  he  said,  sadly.  The  novel  sensa 
tion  of  being  sympathized  with,  welcome  as  it  was, 
greatly  accentuated  his  sense  of  deserving  compas 
sion. 

"I  am  very  sorry,"  she  said,  softly.  She  had 
seated  herself  again,  and  was  gradually  recovering 
her  self-possession.  The  whole  situation  was  so  re 
markable,  not  to  say  startling,  that  she  found  herself 
regarding  it  from  the  outside,  as  if  she  were  not  a 
component  part  of  it.  Her  pulses  were  no  longer 
strongly  stirred  by  its  personal  phases.  Most  clear 
of  all  things  in  her  mind  was  that  she  was  now  per 
fectly  independent  of  this  or  any  other  man.  She 
was  her  own  master,  and  need  ask  favors  from 
nobody.  Therefore,  if  it  pleased  her  to  call  bygones 
bygones  and  make  a  friend  of  Horace — or  even  to 
put  a  bandage  across  her  eyes  and  cull  from  those 
bygones  only  the  rose  leaves  and  violet  blossoms, 
and  make  for  her  weary  soul  a  bed  of  these — what 
or  who  was  to  prevent  her  ? 


A  Strange  Encounter.  413 

Some  inexplicable,  unforeseen  revulsion  of  feeling 
had  made  him  pleasant  in  her  sight  again.  There 
was  no  doubt  about  it — she  had  genuine  satisfaction 
in  sitting  here  opposite  him  and  looking  at  him. 
Had  she  so  many  pleasures,  then,  that  she  should 
throw  this  unlooked-for  boon  deliberately  away? 

Moreover — and  here  the  new  voices  called  most 
loudly  in  her  heart — he  was  worn  and  unhappy. 
The  iron  had  palpably  entered  his  soul  too.  He 
looked  years  older  than  he  had  any  chronological 
right  to  look.  There  were  heavy  lines  of  anxiety 
on  his  face,  and  his  blonde  hair  was  powdered  thick 
with  silver. 

"  Yes,  I  am  truly  sorry,"  she  said  again.  "  Is  it 
business  that  has  gone  wrong  with  you  ?" 

"  Business — family — health — sleep — everything  !  " 
he  groaned,  bitterly.  "  It  is  literally  a  hell  that  I 
have  been  living  in  this  last — these  last  few  months  !  " 

"  I  had  no  idea  of  that,"  she  said,  simply.  Of 
course  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  ask  if  there  was 
anything  she  could  do,  but  she  had  comfort  from 
the  thought  that  he  must  realize  what  was  in  her 
mind. 

"  So  help  me  God,  Jess ! "  he  burst  out  vehe 
mently,  under  the  incentive  of  her  sympathy,  "  I'm 
coming  to  believe  that  every  man  is  a  scoundrel,  and 
every  woman  a  fool !  " 

"  There  was  a  long  time  when  /  thought  that," 
she  said  with  a  sigh. 

He  looked  quickly  at  her  from  under  his  brows, 
and  then  as  swiftly  turned  his  glance  away.  "  Yes, 


41 4  The  Lawton  Girl. 

\  know,"  he  answered  uneasily,  tapping  with  his 
fingers  on  the  desk. 

"  But  we  won't  talk  of  that,"  she  urged,  with  a 
little  tremor  of  anxiety  in  her  tone.  "  We  needn't 
talk  of  that  at  all.  It  was  merely  by  accident  that  I 
came  here,  Horace.  I  wanted  to  ask  a  question,  and 
nothing  was  further  from  my  head  than  finding  you 
here." 

"  Let's  see — Mart  Jocelyn  had  this  place  up  to  a 
couple  of  months  ago.  Was  it  he  you  came  to 
see  ?  I  didn't  know  you  knew  him." 

"No,  .you  foolish  boy!"  she  said,  with  a  smile 
which  had  a  ground  tone  of  sadness.  "  I  never 
heard  of  him  before.  It  was  simply  any  lawyer  I 
was  looking  for.  But  what  I  wanted  to  say  was  that 
I  am  not  angry  with  you  any  more.  I've  learned  a 
host  of  bitter  lessons  since  we  were — young  together, 
and  I'm  too  much  alone  in  the  world  to  want  to 
keep  you  an  enemy.  You  don't  seem  so  very 
happy  yourself,  Horace.  Why  shouldn't  we  two 
be  friends  again?  I'm  not  talking  of  anything  else, 
Horace — understand  me.  But  it  appeals  to  me  very 
strongly,  this  idea  of  our  being  friends  again." 

Horace  looked  meditatively  at  her,  with  softening 
eyes.  "  You're  the  best  of  the  lot,  dear  old  Jess,"  he 
said  at  last,  smiling  candidly.  "  Truly  I'm  glad  you 
came — gladder  than  I  can  tell  you.  I  was  in  the 
very  slough  of  despond  when  you  entered  ;  and 
now — well,  at  least  I'm  going  to  play  that  I  am  out 
of  it." 

Jessica  rose  with  a  beaming  countenance,  and  laid 


A  Strange  Encounter.  415 

her  hand  frankly  on  his  shoulder.  "  I'm  glad  I 
came,  too,"  she  said.  "  And  very  soon  I  want  to 
see  you  again — when  you  are  quite  free — and  have 
a  long,  quiet  talk." 

"  All  right,  my  girl,"  he  answered,  rising  as  well. 
The  prospect  seemed  entirely  attractive  to  him.  He 
took  her  hand  in  his,  and  said  again  :  "  All  right. 
And  must  you  go  now?" 

"  Oh,  mercy,  yes  !  "  she  exclaimed,  with  sudden 
recollection.  "I  had  no  business  to  stay  so  long! 
Perhaps  you  can  tell  me — or  no —  She  vaguely 
put  together  in  her  mind  the  facts  that  Tracy  and 
Horace  had  been  partners,  and  seemed  to  be  so  no 
longer.  "  No,  you  wouldn't  know." 

"  Have  I  so  poor  a  legal  reputation  as  all  that  ?  " 
he  said,  lightly  smiling.  "  Hang  it  all !  One's 
friends,  at  least,  ought  to  dissemble  their  bad  opin 
ions." 

"  No,  it  wasn't  about  law,"  she  explained,  stum- 
blingly.  "  It's  of  no  importance.  I  must  hurry 
now.  Good-by  for  the  time." 

He  would  have  drawn  her  to  him  and  kissed  her 
at  this,  but  she  gently  prevented  the  caress,  and 
released  herself  from  his  hands. 

"  Not  that,"  she  said,  with  a  smile  in  which  still 
some  sadness  lingered.  "  I  would  rather  not  that. 
It  is  better  so.  And  —  good-by,  Horace,  for  the 
time." 

He  went  with  her  to  the  door,  lighting  the  hall  gas 
that  she  might  see  her  way  down  the  stairs.  When 
she  had  disappeared,  he  walked  for  a  little  up  and 


416  The  Lawton  Girl 

down  the  room,  whistling  softly  to  himself.  It  was 
undeniable  that  the  world  seemed  vastly  brighter  to 
him  than  it  had  only  a  half-hour  before.  Mere  con 
tact  with  somebody  who  liked  him  for  himself  was  a 
refreshing  novelty. 

"  A  damned  decent  sort  of  girl — considering 
everything !  "  he  mused  aloud,  as  he  locked  up  his 
desk  for  the  day. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE  ALARM   AT   THE   FARMHOUSE. 

To  come  upon  the  street  again  was  like  the  con 
fused  awakening  from  a  dream.  With  the  first  few 
steps  Jessica  found  herself  shivering  in  an  extremity 
of  cold,  yet  still  uncomfortably  warm.  A  sudden 
passing  spasm  of  giddiness,  too,  made  her  head 
swim  so  that  for  the  instant  she  feared  to  fall. 
Then,  with  an  added  sense  of  weakness,  she  went 
on,  wearily  and  desponding. 

The  recollection  of  this  novel  and  curious  hap 
piness  upon  which  she  had  stumbled  only  a  few 
moments  before  took  on  now  the  character  of  self- 
reproach.  The  burning  headache  had  returned,  and 
with  it  came  a  pained  consciousness  that  it  had 
been  little  less  than  criminal  in  her  to  weakly  dally 
in  Horace's  office  when  such  urgent  responsibility 
rested  upon  her  outside.  If  the  burden  of  this  re 
sponsibility  appeared  too  great  for  her  to  bear,  now 
that  her  strength  seemed  to  be  so  strangely  leaving 
her,  there  was  all  the  more  reason  for  her  to  set 
her  teeth  together,  and  press  forward,  even  if  she 
staggered  as  she  went. 

Only — where  to  find  Reuben  Tracy !  The  search 
had  been  made  cruelly  hopeless  by  that  shameful 
delay ;  and  she  blamed  herself  with  fierceness  for 

27 


41 8  The  Lawton  Girl. 

it,  as  she  racked  her  brain  for  some  new  plan, 
wondering  whether  she  ought  to  have  asked  Hor 
ace  or  gone  into  some  of  the  other  offices. 

There  were  groups  of  men  standing  here  and 
there  on  the  corners — a  little  away  from  the  full 
light  of  the  street-lamps,  as  if  unwilling  to  court 
observation.  These  knots  of  workmen  had  a  sin 
ister  significance  to  her  feverish  mind.  She  had 
the  clew  to  the  terrible  mischief  which  some  of 
them  intended — which  no  doubt  even  now  they 
were  canvassing  in  furtive  whispers — and  only 
Tracy  could  stop  it,  and  she  was  powerless  to 
find  him  ! 

There  came  slouching  along  the  sidewalk,  as  she 
grappled  with  this  anguish  of  irresolution,  a  slight 
and  shabby  figure  which  somehow  arrested  her 
attention.  It  was  a  familiar  enough  figure — that  of 
old  "Cal"  Gedney  ;  and  there  was  nothing  unusual 
or  worthy  of  comment  in  the  fact  that  he  was  walk 
ing  unsteadily  by  himself,  with  his  gaze  fixed  in 
tently  on  the  sidewalk.  He  had  passed  again  out 
of  the  range  of  her  cursory  glance  before  she  sud 
denly  remembered  that  he  was  a  lawyer,  and  even 
some  kind  of  a  judge. 

She  turned  swiftly  and  almost  ran  after  him, 
clutching  his  sleeve  as  she  came  up  to  him,  and 
breathing  so  hard  with  weakness  and  excitement 
that  for  the  moment  she  could  not  speak. 

The  'squire  looked  up,  and  angrily  shook  his  arm 
out  of  her  grasp.  "  Leave  me  alone,  you  hussy," 
he  snarled,  "  or  I'll  lock  you  up  !  " 


The  Alarm  at  the  Farmhouse.  419 

His  misconstruction  of  her  purpose  cleared  her 
mind.  "  Don't  be  foolish,"  she  said,  hurriedly. 
"  It's  a  question  of  perhaps  life  and  death !  Do 
you  know  where  Reuben  Tracy  is?  Or  can  you 
tell  me  where  I  can  find  out?" 

"  He  don't  want  to  be  bothered  with  you,  wher 
ever  he  is,"  was  the  surly  response.  "  Be  off  with 
you  ! " 

"  I  told  you  it  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death," 
she  insisted,  earnestly.  "  He'll  never  forgive  you — 
you'll  never  forgive  yourself — if  you  know  and  won't 
tell  me." 

The  sincerity  of  the  girl's  tone  impressed  the  old 
man.  It  was  not  easy  for  him  to  stand  erect  and 
unaided  without  swaying,  but  his  mind  was  evidently 
clear  enough. 

"What  do  you  want  with  him?"  he  asked,  in  a 
less  unfriendly  voice.  Then  he  added,  in  a  reflec 
tive  undertone :  "  Cur'ous  't  I  sh'd  want  see  Tracy, 
too." 

"Then  you  do  know  where  he  is?" 

"  He's  drove  out  to  's  mother's  farm.  'Seems  word 
come  old  woman's  sick.  You're  one  of  that  Lawton 
tribe,  aren't  you  ?  " 

"  If  I  get  a  cutter,  will  you  drive  out  there  with 
me?"  She  asked  the  question  with  swift  directness. 
She  added  in  explanation,  as  he  stared  vacantly  at 
her :  "  I  ask  that  because  you  said  you  wanted  to 
see  him,  that's  all.  I  shall  go  alone  if  you  won't 
come.  He's  got  to  be  back  here  this  evening,  or  God 
only  knows  what'll  happen  !  I  mean  what  I  say !  " 


420  The  Lawton  Girl. 

"  Do  you  know  the  road  ? "  the  'squire  asked, 
catching  something  of  her  own  eager  spirit. 

"  Every  inch  of  it !  I  was  born  half  a  mile  from 
where  his  mother  lives." 

"  But  you  won't  tell  me  what  your  business  is?" 

"  I'll  tell  you  this  much,"  she  whispered,  hastily. 
"  There  is  going  to  be  a  mob  at  the  Minster  house 
to-night.  A  girl  who  knows  one  of  the  men  told — " 

The  old  'squire  cut  short  the  revelation  by  grasp 
ing  her  arm  with  fierce  energy. 

"  Come  on — come  on!  "  he  said,  hoarsely.  "  Don't 
waste  a  minute.  By  God !  We'll  gallop  the  horses 
both  ways."  He  muttered  to  himself  with  excite 
ment  as  Jie  dragged  her  along. 

Jessica  waited  outside  the  livery  stable  for  what 
seemed  an  interminable  period,  while  old  "  Cal  "  was 
getting  the  horses — walking  up  and  down  the  path 
in  a  state  of  mental  torment  which  precluded  all 
sense  of  bodily  suffering.  When  she  conjured  up 
before  her  frightened  mind  the  terrible  consequences 
•which  delay  might  entail,  every  minute  became  an 
intolerable  hour  of  torture.  There  was  even  the  evil 
chance  that  the  old  man  had  been  refused  the  horses 
because  he  had  been  drinking. 

Finally,  however,  there  came  the  welcome  sound  of 
mailed  hoofs  on  the  plank  roadway  inside,  and  the 
reverberating  jingle  of  bells ;  and  then  the  'squire, 
with  a  spacious  double-seated  sleigh  containing 
plenty  of  robes,  drew  up  in  front  of  a  cutting  in  the 
snow. 
\  She  took  the  front  seat  without  hesitation,  and 


The  Alarm  at  the  Farmhouse.  421 

gathered  the  lines  into  her  own  hands.  "  Let  me 
drive,"  she  said,  clucking  the  horses  into  a  rapid 
trot.  "  I  should  be  home  in  bed.  I'm  too  ill  to  sit 
up,  unless  I'm  doing  something  that  keeps  me  from 
giving  up." 

Reuben  Tracy  felt  the  evening  in  the  sitting-room 
of  the  old  farmhouse  to  be  the  most  trying  ordeal 
of  his  adult  life. 

Ordinarily  he  rather  enjoyed  than  otherwise  the 
company  of  his  brother  Ezra — a  large,  powerfully 
built,  heavily  bearded  man,  who  sat  now  beside  him 
in  a  rocking-chair  in  front  of  the  wood  stove,  his 
stockinged  feet  on  the  hearth,  and  a  last  week's  agri 
cultural  paper  on  his  knee.  Ezra  was  a  worthy  and 
hard-working  citizen,  with  an  original  way  of  look 
ing  at  things,  and  considerable  powers  of  expression. 
As  a  rule,  the  lawyer  liked  to  talk  with  him,  and  felt 
that  he  profited  in  ideas  and  suggestions  from  the 
talk. 

But  to-night  he  found  his  brother  insufferably 
dull,  and  the  task  of  keeping  down  the  "  fidgets  " 
one  of  incredible  difficulty.  His  mother — on  whose 
account  he  had  been  summoned — was  so  much  better 
that  Ezra's  wife  had  felt  warranted  in  herself  going 
off  to  bed,  to  get  some  much-needed  rest.  Ezra  had 
argued  for  a  while,  rather  perversely,  about  the  tariff 
duty  on  wool,  and  now  was  nodding  in  his  chair, 
although  the  dim-faced  old  wooden  clock  showed  it 
to  be  barely  eight  o'clock.  The  kerosene  lamp  on 
the  table  gave  forth  only  a  feeble,  reddened  light 


422  The  Lawton  Girl. 

through  its  smoky  chimney,  but  diffused  a  most 
powerful  odor  upon  the  stuffy  air  of  the  over-heated 
room.  A  ragged  and  strong-smelling  old  farm  dog 
groaned  offensively  from  time  to  time  in  his  sleep 
behind  the  stove.  Even  the  draught  which  roared 
through  the  lower  apertures  in  front  of  the  stove 
and  up  the  pipe  toward  the  chimney  was  irritating 
by  the  very  futility  of  its  vehemence,  for  the  place 
was  too  hot  already. 

Reuben  mused  in  silence  upon  the  chances  which 
had  led  him  so  far  away  from  this  drowsy,  unfruitful 
life,  and  smiled  as  he  found  himself  wondering  if  it 
would  be  in  the  least  possible  for  him  to  return  to  it. 
No — no  one  ever  did  return.  The  bright  boys,  the 
restless  boys,  the  boys  of  energy,  of  ambition,  of 
yearning  for  culture  or  conquest  or  the  mere  sensa 
tion  of  living  where  it  was  really  life — all  went  away, 
leaving  none  but  the  Ezras  behind.  Some  suc 
ceeded  ;  some  failed  ;  but  none  of  them  ever  came 
back.  And  the  Ezras  who  remained  on  the  farms 
—they  seemed  to  shut  and  bolt  the  doors  of  their 
minds  against  all  idea  of  making  their  own  lot  less 
sterile  and  barren  and  uninviting. 

The  mere  mental  necessity  for  a  great  contrast 
brought  up  suddenly  in  Reuben's  thoughts  a  picture 
of  the  drawing-room  in  the  home  of  the  Minsters. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  whole  vast  swing  of  the  mind's 
pendulum  separated  that  luxurious  abode  of  cultured 
wealth  from  this  dingy  and  barren  farmhouse  room. 
And  he,  who  had  been  born  and  reared  in  this  latter, 
now  found  himself  at  a  loss  how  to  spend  so  much 


The  Alarm  at  the  Farmhouse.  423 

as  a  single  evening  in  its  environment,  so  completely 
had  familiarity  with  the  other  remoulded  and 
changed  his  habits,  his  point  of  view,  his  very  charac 
ter.  Curious  slaves  of  habit — creatures  of  their  sur 
roundings — men  were  ! 

A  loud,  peremptory  knocking  at  the  door  aroused 
Reuben  abruptly  from  his  revery,  and  Ezra,  too, 
opened  his  eyes  with  a  start,  and  sitting  upright 
rubbed  them  confusedly. 

"  Now  I  think  of  it,  I  heard  a  sleigh  stop,"  said 
Reuben,  rising.  "  It  can't  be  the  doctor  this  time  of 
night,  can  it  ?  " 

"  It  'ud  be  jest  like  him,"  commented  Ezra,  cap 
tiously.  "  He's  a  great  hand  to  keep  dropping  in, 
sort  of  casual-like,  when  there's  sickness  in  the 
house.  It  all  goes  down  in  his  bill." 

The  farmer  brother  had  also  risen,  and  now,  lamp 
in  hand,  walked  heavily  in  his  stocking  feet  to  the 
door,  and  opened  it  half  way.  Some  indistinct 
words  passed,  and  then,  shading  the  flickering  flame 
with  his  huge  hairy  hand,  Ezra  turned  his  head. 

"  Somebody  to  see  you,  Rube,"  he  said.  On  sec 
ond  thought  he  added  to  the  visitor  in  a  tone  of 
formal  politeness:  "  Won't  you  step  in,  ma'am?" 

Jessica  Lawton  almost  pushed  her  host  aside  in 
her  impulsive  response  to  his  invitation.  But  when 
she  had  crossed  the  threshold  the  sudden  change 
into  a  heated  atmosphere  seemed  to  go  to  her  brain 
like  chloroform.  She  stood  silent,  staring  at  Reuben, 
with  parted  lips  and  hands  nervously  twitching. 
Even  as  he,  in  his  complete  surprise,  recognized  his 


424  The  Lawton  Girl. 

visitor,  she  trembled  violently  from  head  to  foot, 
made  a  forward  step,  tottered,  and  fell  inertly  into 
Ezra's  big,  protecting  arm. 

"  I  guessed  she  was  going  to  do  it,"  said  the  far 
mer,  not  dissembling  his  pride  at  the  alert  way  in 
which  the  strange  woman  had  been  caught,  and 
holding  up  the  lamp  with  his  other  hand  in  triumph. 
"  Hannah  keeled  over  in  that  same  identical  way 
when  Suky  run  her  finger  through  the  cogs  of  the 
wringing-machine,  and  I  ketched  her,  too  !  " 

Reuben  had  hurriedly  come  to  his  brother's  assist 
ance.  The  two  men  placed  the  fainting  girl  in  the 
rocking-chair,  and  the  lawyer  began  with  anxious 
fumbling  to  loosen  the  neck  of  her  cloak  and  draw 
off  her  gloves.  Her  ringers  were  like  ice,  and  her 
brow,  though  it  felt  now  almost  equally  cold,  was  cov 
ered  with  perspiration.  Reuben  rubbed  her  hands 
between  his  broad  palms  in  a  crudely  informed 
belief  that  it  was  the  right  thing  to  do,  while  Ezra 
rummaged  in  the  adjoining  pantry  for  the  household 
bottle  of  brandy. 

Jessica  came  out  of  her  swoon  with  the  first  touch 
of  the  pungent  spirit  upon  her  whitened  lips.  She 
looked  with  weak  blankness  at  the  unfamiliar  scene 
about  her,  until  her  gaze  fell  upon  the  face  of  the 
lawyer.  Then  she  smiled  faintly  and  closed  her 
eyes  again. 

"  She  is  an  old  friend  of  mine,"  whispered  Reuben 
to  his  brother,  as  he  pressed  the  brandy  once  more 
upon  her.  "She'll  come  to  in  a  minute.  It  must 
be  something  serious  that  brought  her  out  here." 


The  Alarm  at  the  Farmhouse.  425 

The  girl  languidly  opened  her  eyes.  "  '  Cal '  Ged- 
ney's  asleep  in  the  sleigh,"  she  murmured.  "  You'd 
better  bring  him  in.  He'll  tell  you." 

It  was  with  an  obvious  effort  that  she  said  this 
much ;  and  now,  while  Ezra  hastily  pulled  on  his 
boots,  her  eyes  closed  again,  and  her  head  sank  with 
utter  weariness  sideways  upon  the  high  back  of  the 
old-fashioned  chair. 

Reuben  stood  looking  at  her  in  pained  anxiety 
— once  or  twice  holding  the  lamp  close  to  her  pale 
face,  in  dread  of  he  knew  not  what — until  his 
brother  returned.  Ezra  had  brought  the  horses 
up  into  the  yard,  and  remained  outside  now  to 
blanket  them,  while  the  old  'squire,  benumbed  and 
drowsy,  found  his  way  into  the  house.  It  was  evi 
dent  enough  to  the  young  lawyer's  first  glance  that 
Gedney  had  been  drinking  heavily. 

"  Well,  what  does  this  all  mean?"  he  demanded, 
with  vexed  asperity. 

"  You've  got  to  get  on  your  things  and  race  back 
with  us,  helly-to-hoot !  "  said  the  'squire.  "  Quick — 
there  ain't  a  minute  to  lose !  "  The  old  man  almost 
gasped  in  his  eagerness. 

"  In  Heaven's  name,  what's  up  ?  Have  you  been 
to  Cadmus  ?" 

"  Yes,  and  got  my  pocket  full  of  affidavits.  We 
can  send  all  three  of  them  to  prison  fast  enough. 
But  that'll  do  to-morrow  ;  for  to-night  there's  a  mob 
up  at  the  Minster  place.  Look  there/" 

The  old  man  had  gone  to  the  window  and 
swept  the  stiff  curtain  aside.  He  held  it  now 


426  The  Lawton  Girl. 

with  a  trembling  hand,  so  that  Reuben  could  look 
out. 

The  whole  southern  sky  overhanging  Thessaly 
was  crimson  with  the  reflection  of  a  fire. 

"  Great  God !  it's  the  rolling  mill,"  ejaculated 
Reuben,  breathlessly. 

"  Quite  as  likely  it's  the  Minster  house;  it's  the 
same  direction,  only  farther  off,  and  fires  are  decep 
tive,"  said  Gedney,  his  excitement  rising  under  the 
stimulus  of  the  spectacle. 

Reuben  had  kicked  off  his  slippers,  and  was  now 
dragging  on  his  shoes.  "  Tell  me  about  it,"  he  said, 
working  furiously  at  the  laces. 

'Squire  Gedney  helped  himself  generously  to  the 
brandy  on  the  table  as  he  unfolded,  in  somewhat 
incoherent  fashion,  his  narrative.  The  Lawton  girl 
had  somehow  found  out  that  a  hostile  demonstra 
tion  against  the  Minsters  was  intended  for  the  even 
ing,  and  had  started  out  to  find  Tracy.  By  accident 
she  had  met  him  (Gedney),  and  they  had  come  off  in 
the  sleigh  together.  She  had  insisted  upon  driving, 
and  as  his  long  journey  from  Cadmus  had  greatly 
fatigued  him,  he  had  got  over  into  the  back  seat  and 
gone  to  sleep  under  the  buffalo  robes.  He  knew 
nothing  more  until  Ezra  had  roused  him  from  his 
slumber  in  the  sled,  now  at  a  standstill  on  the  road 
outside,  and  he  had  awakened  to  discover  Jessica 
gone,  the  horses  wet  and  shivering  in  a  cloud  of 
steam,  and  the  sky  behind  them  all  ablaze. 

"  Jee-Whitaker!  Looks  as  if  the  whole  town 
was  burning,"  said  Ezra,  coming  in  as  this  recital 


The  Alarm  at  the  Farmhouse.  427 

was  concluded.  "  Them  horses  would  a-got  their 
death  out  there  in  another  ten  minutes.  Guess  I'd 
better  put  'em  in  the  barn,  eh  ?  " 

"  No,  no !  Just  turn  them  around.  I've  got  to 
drive  them  back  faster  than  they  came,"  said  Reu 
ben,  who  had  on  his  overcoat  and  hat.  "  Hurry, 
and  get  me  some  thick  gloves  to  drive  in.  I'll  leave 
my  things  here.  We  won't  wake  mother  up.  I'll 
get  you  to  run  in  to-morrow,  if  you  will,  and  let  me 
know  how  she  is.  Tell  her  I  had  to  go." 

When  Ezra  had  found  the  gloves  and  brought 
them,  the  two  men  for  the  first  time  bent  an  instinc 
tive  joint  glance  at  the  recumbent  figure  of  the  girl 
in  the  rocking-chair. 

"  I'll  get  Hannah  up,"  said  the  farmer,  "  and  she 
can  have  your  room.  I  guess  she's  too  sick  to  try 
to  go  back  with  you.  If  she's  well  enough,  I'll  bring 
her  in  in  the  morning.  I  was  going  to  take  in  some 
apples,  anyway." 

To  their  surprise  Jessica  opened  her  eyes  and 
even  lifted  her  head  at  these  words. 

"  No,"  she  said  ;  "  I  feel  better  now — much  better. 
I  must  go  back  with  Mr.  Tracy.  I  really  must." 

She  rose  to  her  feet  as  she  spoke,  and,  though 
she  was  conscious  of  great  dizziness  and  languor, 
succeeded  by  her  smile  in  imposing  upon  her  un 
skilled  companions.  Perhaps  if  Hannah  had  been 
"got  up"  she  would  have  seen  through  the  weak 
pretence  of  strength,  and  insisted  on  having  matters 
ordered  otherwise.  But  the  men  offered  no  dissent. 
Jessica  was  persuaded  to  drink  another  glass  of 


428  The  Lawton  Girl. 

brandy,  and  'Squire  Gedney  took  one  without  being 
specially  urged  ;  and  then  Reuben  impatiently  led 
the  way  out  to  the  sleigh,  which  Ezra  had  turned 
around. 

"  No  ;  I'd  rather  be  in  front  with  you,"  the  girl 
said,  when  Reuben  had  spread  the  robes  for  her  to 
sit  in  the  back  seat.  "  Let  the  Judge  sit  there  ;  he 
wants  to  sleep.  I'm  not  tired  now,  and  I  want  to 
keep  awake." 

Thus  it  was  arranged,  and  Reuben,  with  a  strong 
hand  on  the  tight  reins,  started  the  horses  on  their 
homeward  rush  toward  the  flaming  horizon. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

PACING  TOWARD   THE   REDDENED   SKY. 

FOR  some  time  there  was  no  conversation  in  the 
sleigh.  The  horses  sped  evenly  forward,  with  their 
heads  well  in  the  air,  as  if  they  too  were  excited  by 
the  unnatural  glare  in  the  sky  ahead.  Before  long 
there  was  added  to  the  hurried  regular  beating  of 
their  hoofs  upon  the  hard-packed  track  another 
sound — the  snoring  of  the  'squire  on  the  seat 
behind. 

There  was  a  sense  of  melting  in  the  air.  Save 
where  the  intense  glow  of  the  conflagration  lit  up 
the  sky  with  a  fan-like  spread  of  ruddy  luminance — 
fierce  orange  at  the  central  base,  and  then  through  an 
expanse  of  vermilion,  rose,  and  cherry  to  deepening 
crimsons  and  dull  reddish  purples — the  heavens  hung 
black  with  snow-laden  clouds.  A  pleasant,  moist 
night-breeze  came  softly  across  the  valley,  bearing 
ever  and  again  a  solitary  flake  of  snow.  The  effect 
of  this  mild  wind  was  so  grateful  to  Jessica's  face, 
now  once  more  burning  with  an  inner  heat,  that  she 
gave  no  thought  to  a  curious  difficulty  in  breathing 
which  was  growing  upon  her. 

"  The  scoundrels  shall  pay  dear  for  this,  "  Reuben 
said  to  her,  between  set  teeth,  when  there  came  a 


43°  The  Lawton  Girl. 

place  in  the  road  where  the  horses  must  be  allowed 
to  walk  up  hill. 

"  I'm  sure  I  hope  so,"  she  said,  quite  in  his  spirit. 

The  husky  note  in  her  voice  caught  his  attention. 
"Are  you  sure  you  are  bundled  up  warm  enough?" 
he  asked  with  solicitude,  pulling  the  robe  higher 
about  her. 

"  Oh,  yes.  I'm  not  very  well.  I  caught  a  heavy 
cold  yesterday,"  she  answered.  "  But  it  will  be 
nothing,  if  only  we  can  get  there  in  time." 

It  struck  her  as  strange  when  Reuben  presently 
replied,  putting  the  whip  once  more  to  the  horses: 
"God  only  knows  what  can  be  done  when  I  do  get 
there!"  It  had  seemed  to  her  a  matter  of  course 
that  Tracy  would  be  equal  to  any  emergency — even 
an  armed  riot.  There  was  something  almost  dis 
heartening  in  this  confession  of  self-doubt. 

"  But  at  any  rate  they  shall  pay  for  it  to-morrow," 
he  broke  out,  angrily,  a  moment  later.  "Down  to 
the  last  pennyweight  we  will  have  our  pound  of 
flesh  !  My  girl,"  he  added,  turning  to  look  into  her 
face,  and  speaking  with  deep  earnestness,  "  I  never 
knew  what  it  was  before  to  feel  wholly  merciless — 
absolutely  without  bowels  of  compassion.  But  I 
will  not  abate  so  much  as  the  fraction  of  a  hair  with 
these  villains.  I  swear  that !  " 

By  an  odd  contradiction,  his  words  raised  a  vague 
spirit  of  compunction  within  her.  "They  feel  very 
bitterly,"  she  ventured  to  suggest.  "  It  is  terrible 
to  be  turned  out  of  work  in  the  winter,  and  with 
families  dependent  on  that  work  for  bare  existence- 


Racing  toward  the  Reddened  Sky.  431 

And  then  the  bringing  in  of  these  strange  workmen. 
I  suppose  that  is  what— 

Reuben  interrupted  her  with  an  abrupt  laugh. 
"  I'm  not  thinking  of  them,"  he  said.  "Poor  fooL 
ish  fellows,  I  don't  wish  them  any  harm.  I  only  pray 
God  they  haven't  done  too  much  harm  to  them 
selves.  No  :  it's  the  swindling  scoundrels  who  are 
responsible  for  the  mischief — they  are  the  ones  I'll 
put  the  clamps  onto  to-morrow." 

The  words  conveyed  no  meaning  to  her,  and  she 
kept  silent  until  he  spoke  further:  "I  don't  know 
whether  he  told  you,  but  Gedney  has  brought  me 
to-night  the  last  links  needed  for  a  chain  of  proof 
which  must  send  all  three  of  these  ruffians  to  State 
prison.  I  haven't  had  time  to  examine  the  papers 
yet,  but  he  says  he's  got  them  in  his  pocket  there — 
affidavits  from  the  original  inventor  of  certain  ma 
chinery,  about  its  original  sale,  and  from  others  who 
were  a  party  to  it — which  makes  the  whole  fraud 
absolutely  clear.  I'll  go  over  them  to-night,  when 
we've  seen  this  thing  through  " — pointing  vaguely 
with  his  whip  toward  the  reddened  sky — "  and  if  to 
morrow  I  don't  lay  all  three  of  them  by  the  heels, 
you  can  have  my  head  for  a  foot-ball ! " 

"  I  don't  understand  these  things  very  well,"  said 
Jessica.  "Who  is  it  you  mean?"  It  was  growing 
still  harder  for  her  to  breathe,  and  sharp  pain  came  in 
her  breast  now  with  almost  every  respiration.  Her 
head  ached,  too,  so  violently  that  she  cared  very 
little  indeed  who  it  was  that  should  go  to  prison  to 
morrow. 


432  The  Latvian  Girl. 

"  There  are  three  of  them  in  the  scheme,"  said 
the  lawyer;  "as  cold-blooded  and  deliberate  a  piece 
of  robbeiy  as  ever  was  planned.  First,  there's  a 
New  York  man  named  Wendover — they  call  him 
a  Judge — a  smart,  subtle,  slippery  scoundrel  if  ever 
there  was  one.  Then  there's  Schuyler  Tenney — 
perhaps  you  know  who  he  is — he's  a  big  hardware 
merchant  here  ;  and  with  him  in  the  swindle  was — 
Good  heavens !  Why,  I  never  thought  of  it  be 
fore!" 

Reuben  had  stopped  short  in  his  surprise.  He 
began  whipping  the  horses  now  with  a  seeming  air 
of  exultation,  and  stole  a  momentary  smile-lit  glance 
toward  his  companion. 

"It's  just  occurred  to  me,"  he  said..  "Curious — 
I  hadn't  given  it  a  thought.  Why,  my  girl,  it's  like 
a  special  providence.  You,  too,  will  have  your  full 
revenge — such  revenge  as  you  never  dreamt  of. 
The  third  man  is  Horace  Boyce  ! " 

A  great  wave  of  cold  stupor  engulfed  the  girl's 
reason  as  she  took  in  these  words,  and  her  head 
swam  and  roared  as  if  in  truth  she  had  been  plunged 
headlong  into  unknown  depths  of  icy  water. 

When  she  came  to  the  surface  of  consciousness 
again,  the  horses  were  still  rhythmically  racing  along 
the  hill-side  road  overlooking  the  village.  The  fire 
light  in  the  sky  had  faded  down  now  to  a  dull  pink 
ish  effect  like  the  northern  lights.  Reuben  was 
chewing  an  unlighted  cigar,  and  the  'squire  was 
steadily  snoring  behind  them.  It  had  begun  to 
snow. 


Racing  toward  the  Reddened  Sky,          433 

"You  will  send  them  all  to  prison — surely?"  she 
was  able  to  ask. 

"As  surely  as  God  made  little  apples!"  was  the 
sententious  response. 

The  girl  was  cowering  under  the  buffalo-robe  in 
an  anguish  of  mind  so  terribly  intense  that  her 
physical  pains  were  all  forgotten.  Only  her  throb 
bing  head  seemed  full  of  thick  blood,  and  there  was 
such  an  awful  need  that  she  should  think  clearly ! 
She  bit  her  lips  in  tortured  silence,  striving  through 
a  myriad  of  wandering,  crowding  ideas  to  lay  hold 
upon  something  which  should  be  of  help. 

They  had  begun  to  descend  the  hill — a  steep,  un 
even  road  full  of  drifts,  beyond  which  stretched  a 
level  mile  of  highway  leading  into  the  village  itself 
— when  suddenly  a  bold  thought  came  to  her,  which 
on  the  instant  had  shot  up,  powerful  and  command 
ing,  into  a  very  tower  of  resolution.  She  laid  her 
hand  on  Reuben's  arm. 

"  If  you  don't  mind,  I'll  change  into  the  back  seat," 
she  said,  in  a  voice  which  all  her  efforts  could  not 
keep  from  shaking.  "  I'm  feeling  very  ill.  It'll  be 
easier  for  me  there." 

Reuben  at  once  drew  up  the  horses,  and  the  girl, 
summoning  all  her  strength,  managed  without  his 
help  to  get  around  the  side  of  the  sleigh,  and  under 
the  robe,  into  the  rear  seat.  The  'squire  was  sunk 
in  such  a  profound  sleep  that  she  had  to  push  him 
bodily  over  into  his  own  half  of  the  space,  and  the 
discovery  that  this  did  not  waken  him  filled  her  with 
so  great  a  delight  that  all  her  strength  and  self- 
28 


434  The  Lawton  Girl. 

control  seemed  miraculously  to  have  returned  to 
her. 

She  had  need  of  them  both  for  the  task  which  she 
had  imposed  upon  herself,  and  which  now,  with  in 
finite  caution  and  trepidation,  she  set  herself  about. 
This  was  nothing  less  than  to  secure  the  papers 
which  the  old  'squire  had  brought  from  Cadmus,  and 
which,  from  something  she  remembered  his  having 
said,  must  be  in  the  inner  pocket  of  one  of  his  coats. 
Slowly  and  deftly  she  opened  button  after  button  of 
his  overcoat,  and  gently  pushed  aside  the  cloth  until 
her  hand  might  have  free  passage  to  and  from  the 
pocket,  where,  after  careful  soundings,  she  had  dis 
covered  a  bundle  of  thick  papers  to  be  resting. 
Then  whole  minutes  seemed  to  pass  before,  having 
taken  off  her  glove,  she  was  able  to  draw  this  packet 
out.  Once  during  this  operation  Reuben  half 
turned  to  speak  to  her,  and  her  fright  was  very 
great.  But  she  had  had  the  presence  of  mind  to 
draw  the  robe  high  about  her,  and  answer  collect 
edly,  and  he  had  palpably  suspected  nothing.  As 
for  Gedney,  he  never  once  stirred  in  his  drunken 
sleep. 

The  larceny  was  complete,  and  Jessica  had  been 
able  to  wrap  the  old  man  up  again,  to  button  the 
parcel  of  papers  under  her  own  cloak,  and  to  draw 
on  and  fasten  her  glove  once  more,  before  the  pant 
ing  horses  had  gained  the  outskirts  of  the  village. 
She  herself  was  breathing  almost  as  heavily  as  the 
animals  after  their  gallop,  and,  now  that  the  deed 
was  done,  lay  back  wearily  in  her  seat,  with  pain 


Racing  toward  the  Reddened  Sky.          435 

racking  her  every  joint  and  muscle,  and  a  sickening 
dread  in  her  mind  lest  there  should  be  neither 
strength  nor  courage  forthcoming  for  what  remained 
to  do. 

For  a  considerable  distance  down  the  street  no 
person  was  visible  from  whom  the  eager  Tracy  could 
get  news  of  what  had  happened.  At  last,  however, 
when  the  sleigh  was  within  a  couple  of  blocks  of 
what  seemed  in  the  distance  to  be  a  centre  of  inter 
est,  a  man  came  along  who  shouted  from  the  side 
walk,  in  response  to  Reuben's  questions,  sundry 
leading  facts  of  importance. 

A  fire  had  started — probably  incendiary — in  the 
basement  of  the  office  of  the  Minster  furnaces, 
some  hour  or  so  ago,  and  had  pretty  well  gutted  the 
building.  The  firemen  were  still  playing  on  the 
ruins.  An  immense  crowd  had  witnessed  the  fire, 
and  it  was  the  drunkenest  crowd  he  had  ever  seen 
in  Thessaly.  Where  the  money  came  from  to  buy 
so  much  drink,  was  what  puzzled  him.  The  crowd 
had  pretty  well  cleared  off  now ;  some  said  they 
had  gone  up  to  the  Minster  house  to  give  its  occu 
pants  a  "  horning."  He  himself  had  got  his  feet 
wet,  and  was  afraid  of  the  rheumatics  if  he  stayed 
out  any  longer.  Probably  he  would  get  them,  as  it 
was.  Everybody  said  that  the  building  was  insured, 
and  some  folks  hinted  that  the  company  had  it  set 
on  fire  themselves. 

Reuben  impatiently  whipped  up  the  jaded  team 
at  this,  with  a  curt  "  Much  obliged,"  and  drove  at  a 
spanking  pace  down  the  street  to  the  scene  of  the 


43 6  The  Lawton  Girl. 

conflagration.  There  was  not  much  remaining  to 
see.  The  outer  walls  of  the  office  building  were 
still  gloomily  erect,  but  within  nothing  was  left  but 
a  glowing  mass  of  embers  about  level  with  the 
ground.  Some  firemen  were  inside  the  yard,  but 
more  were  congregated  about  the  water-soaked 
space  where  the  engine  still  noisily  throbbed,  and 
where  hot  coffee  was  being  passed  around  to  them. 
Here,  too,  there  was  a  report  that  the  crowd  had 
gone  up  to  the  Minster  house. 

The  horses  tugged  vehemently  to  drag  the  sleigh 
over  the  impedimenta  of  hose  stretched  along  the 
street,  and  over  the  considerable  area  of  bare  stones 
where  the  snow  had  been  melted  by  the  heat  or 
washed  away  by  the  streams  from  the  hydrants. 
Then  Reuben  half  rose  in  his  seat  to  lash  them  into 
a  last  furious  gallop,  and,  snorting  with  rebellion, 
they  tore  onward  toward  the  seminary  road. 

At  the  corner,  three  doors  from  the  home  of  the 
Minster  ladies,  Reuben  deemed  it  prudent  to  draw 
up.  There  was  evidently  a  considerable  throng  in 
the  road  in  front  of  the  house,  and  that  still  others 
were  on  the  lawn  within  the  gates  was  obvious  from 
the  confused  murmur  which  came  therefrom.  Some 
boys  were  blowing  spasmodically  on  fish-horns,  and 
rough  jeers  and  loud  boisterous  talk  rose  and  fell 
throughout  the  dimly  visible  assemblage.  The  air 
had  become  thick  with  large  wet  snowflakes. 

Reuben  sprang  from  the  sleigh,  and,  stepping 
backward,  vigorously  shook  old  Gedney  into  a  state 
of  semi-wakefulness. 


Racing  toward  the  Reddened  Sky.  437 

"  Hold  these  lines,"  he  said,  "  and  wait  here  for 
me. — Or,"  he  turned  to  Jessica  with  the  sudden 
thought,  "  would  you  rather  he  drove  you  home?" 

The  girl  had  been  in  a  half-insensible  condition  of 
mind  and  body.  At  the  question  she  roused  herself 
and  shook  her  head.  "  No :  let  me  stay  here,"  she 
said,  wearily. 

But  when  Reuben,  squaring  his  broad  shoulders 
and  shaking  himself  to  free  his  muscles  after  the 
long  ride,  had  disappeared  with  an  energetic  stride 
in  the  direction  of  the  crowd,  Jessica  forced  herself 
to  sit  upright,  and  then  to  rise  to  her  feet. 

"  You'd  better  put  the  blankets  on  the  horses,  if 
he  doesn't  come  back  right  off,"  she  said  to  the 
'squire. 

''Where  are  you  going?"  Gedney  asked,  still 
stupid  with  sleep. 

"I'll  walk  up  and  down,"  she  answered,  clamber 
ing  with  difficulty  out  of  the  sleigh.  "  I'm  tired  of 
sitting  still." 

Once  on  the  sidewalk,  she  grew  suddenly  faint, 
and  grasped  a  fence-picket  for  support.  The  hand 
which  she  instinctively  raised  to  her  heart  touched 
the  hard  surface  of  the  packet  of  papers,  and  the 
thought  which  this  inspired  put  new  courage  into 
her  veins. 

With  bowed  head  and  a  hurried,  faltering  step,  she 
turned  her  back  upon  the  Minster  house  and  stole 
off  into  the  snowy  darkness. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

THE    CONQUEST   OF   THE    MOB. 

EVEN  before  he  reached  the  gates  of  the  carriage- 
drive  opening  upon  the  Minster  lawn,  Reuben  Tracy 
encountered  some  men  whom  he  knew,  and  gathered 
that  the  people  in  the  street  outside  were  in  the 
main  peaceful  on-lookers,  who  did  not  understand 
very  clearly  what  was  going  on,  and  disapproved  of 
the  proceedings  as  far  as  they  comprehended  them. 
There  was  a  crowd  inside  the  grounds,  he  was  told, 
made  up  in  part  of  men  who  were  out  of  work,  but 
composed  still  more  largely,  it  seemed,  of  boys  and 
young  hoodlums  generally,  who  were  improving  the 
pretext  to  indulge  in  horseplay.  There  was  a  report 
that  some  sort  of  deputation  had  gone  up  on  the 
doorstep  and  rung  the  bell,  with  a  view  to  making 
some  remarks  to  the  occupants  of  the  house  ;  but  that 
they  had  failed  to  get  any  answer,  and  certainly  the 
whole  front  of  the  residence  was  black  as  night. 

Reuben  easily  obtained  the  consent  of  several  of 
these  citizens  to  follow  him,  and,  as  they  went  on, 
the  number  swelled  to  ten  or  a  dozen.  Doubtless 
many  more  could  have  been  incorporated  in  the  im 
promptu  procession  had  it  not  been  so  hopelessly 
dark. 


The  Conquest  of  the  Mob.  439 

The  lawyer  led  his  friends  through  the  gate,  and 
began  pushing  his  way  up  the  gravelled  path  through 
the  crowd.  No  special  opposition  was  offered  to  his 
progress,  for  the  air  was  so  full  of  snow  now  that 
only  those  immediately  affected  knew  anything  about 
it.  Although  the  path  was  fairly  thronged,  nobody 
seemed  to  have  any  idea  why  he  was  standing  there. 
Those  who  spoke  appeared  in  the  main  to  regard 
the  matter  as  a  joke,  the  point  of  which  was  growing 
more  and  more  obscure.  Except  for  some  sporadic 
horn-blowing  and  hooting  nearer  to  the  house,  the 
activity  of  the  assemblage  was  confined  to  a  hand 
ful  of  boys,' who  mustered  among  them  two  or  three 
kerosene  oil  torches  treasured  from  the  last  Presi 
dential  campaign,  and  a  grotesque  jack-o'-lantern 
made  of  a  pumpkin  and  elevated  on  a  broom-stick. 
These  urchin?  were  running  about  among  the  little 
groups  of  bystanders,  knocking  off  one  another's 
caps,  shouting  prodigiously,  and  having  a  good 
time. 

As  Reuben  and  those  accompanying  him  ap 
proached  the  house,  some  of  these  lads  raised  the 
cry  of  "  Here's  the  coppers !  "  and  the  crowd  at  this 
seemed  to  close  up  with  a  simultaneous  movement, 
while  a  murmur  ran  across  its  surface  like  the  wind 
over  a  field  of  corn.  This  sound  was  one  less  of 
menace  or  even  excitement  than  of  gratification  that 
at  last  something  was  going  to  happen. 

One  of  the  boys  with  a  torch,  in  the  true  spirit  of 
his  generation,  'placed  himself  in  front  of  Reuben 
and  marched  with  mock  gravity  at  the  head  of  the 


440  The  Lawton  Girl. 

advancing  group.  This,  drolly  enough,  lent  the 
movement  a  semblance  of  authority,  or  at  least  of 
significance,  before  which  the  men  more  readily  than 
ever  gave  way.  At  this  the  other  boys  with  the 
torches  and  jack-o'-lantern  fell  into  line  at  the  rear 
of  Tracy's  immediate  supporters,  and  they  in  turn 
were  followed  by  the  throng  generally.  Thus  whim 
sically  escorted,  Reuben  reached  the  front  steps  of 
the  mansion. 

A  more  compact  and  apparently  homogeneous 
cluster  of  men  stood  here,  some  of  them  even  on 
the  steps,  and  dark  and  indistinct  as  everything  was, 
Reuben  leaped  to  the  conclusion  that  these  were 
the  men  at  least  visibly  responsible  for  this  strange 
gathering.  Presumably  they  were  taken  by  surprise 
at  his  appearance  with  such  a  following.  At  any 
rate,  they,  too,  offered  no  concerted  resistance,  and 
he  mounted  to  the  platform  of  the  steps  without 
difficulty.  Then  he  turned  and  whispered  to  a  friend 
to  have  the  boys  with  the  torches  also  come  up. 
This  was  a  suggestion  gladly  obeyed,  not  least  of  all 
by  the  boy  with  the  low-comedy  pumpkin,  whose 
illumination  created  a  good-natured  laugh. 

Tracy  stood  now,  bareheaded  in  the  falling  snow, 
facing  the  throng.  The  gathering  of  the  lights  about 
him  indicated  to  everybody  in  the  grounds  that  the 
aimless  demonstration  had  finally  assumed  some 
kind  of  form.  A  general  forward  movement  was  the 
first  result.  Then  there  were  admonitory  shouts 
here  and  there,  under  the  influence  of  which  the 
horn-blowing  gradually  ceased,  and  Tracy's  name 


The  Conquest  of  the  Mob.  441 

was  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  until  its  mention 
took  on  almost  the  character  of  a  personal  cheer  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  crowd.  In  answer  to  this  two  or 
three  hostile  interrogations  or  comments  were  bawled 
out,  but  the  throng  did  not  favor  these,  and  so  there 
fell  a  silence  which  invited  Reuben  to  speak. 

"  My  friends,"  he  began,  and  then  stopped  because 
he  had  not  pitched  his  voice  high  enough,  and  a 
whole  semicircle  of  cries  of  "  louder !  "  rose  from  the 
darkness  of  the  central  lawn. 

"  He's  afraid  of  waking  the  fine  ladies,"  called 
out  an  anonymous  voice. 

"  Shut  up,  Tracy,  and  let  the  pumpkin  talk,"  was 
another  shout. 

"  Begorrah,  it's  the  pumpkin  that  is  talkin'  now !  " 
cried  a  shrill  third  voice,  and  at  this  there  was  a 
ripple  of  laughter. 

"  My  friends,"  began  Reuben,  in  a  louder  tone, 
this  time  without  immediate  interruption,  "  although 
I  don't  know  precisely  why  you  have  gathered  here 
at  so  much  discomfort  to  yourselves,  I  have  some 
things  to  say  to  you  which  I  think  you  will  regard  as 
important.  I  have  not  seen  the  persons  who  live  in 
this  house  since  Tuesday,  but  while  I  can  easily 
understand  that  your  coming  here  to-night  might 
otherwise  cause  them  some  anxiety,  I  am  sure  that 
they,  when  they  come  to  understand  it,  will  be  as 
glad  as  I  am  that  you  are  here,  and  that  I  am  given 
this  opportunity  of  speaking  for  them  to  you.  If 
you  had  not  taken  this  notion  of  coming  here  to 
night,  I  should  have,  in  a  day  or  two,  asked  you  to 


442  The  Lawton  Girl. 

meet  me  somewhere  else,  in  a  more  convenient  place, 
to  talk  matters  over. 

"  First  of  all  let  me  tell  you  that  the  works  are 
going  to  be  opened  promptly,  certainly  the  furnaces, 
and  unless  I  am  very  much  mistaken 'about  the  law, 
the  rolling  mills  too.  I  give  you  my  word  for  that, 
as  the  legal  representative  of  two  of  these  women." 

"  Yes  ;  they'll  be  opened  with  the  Frenchmen  !  " 
came  a  swift  answering  shout. 

"  Or  will  you  get  Chinamen  ?  "  cried  another,  amid 
derisive  laughter. 

Reuben  responded  in  his  clearest  tones  :  "  No  man 
who  belongs  to  Thessaly  shall  be  crowded  out  by  a 
newcomer.  I  give  you  my  word  for  that,  too." 

Some  scattered  cheers  broke  out  at  this  announce 
ment,  which  promised  for  the  instant  to  become 
general,  and  then  were  hushed  down  by  the  preva 
lent  anxiety  to  hear  more.  In  this  momentary  inter 
val  Reuben  caught  the  sound  of  a  window  being 
cautiously  raised  immediately  above  the  front  door, 
and  guessed  with  a  little  flutter  of  the  heart  who  this 
new  auditor  might  be. 

"Secondly,"  he  went  on,  "you  ought  to  be  told 
the  truth  about  the  shutting  down  of  the  furnaces 
and  the  lockout.  These  women  were  not  at  all  re 
sponsible  for  either  action.  I  know  of  my  own 
knowledge  that  both  things  caused  them  genuine 
grief,  and  that  they  were  shocked  beyond  measure 
at  the  proposal  to  bring  outside  workmen  into  the 
town  to  undersell  and  drive  away  their  own  neigh 
bors  and  fellow-townsmen.  I  want  you  to  realize 


The  Conquest  of  the  Mob.  443 

this,  because  otherwise  you  would  do  a  wrong  in 
your  minds  to  these  good  women  who  belong  to 
Thessaly,  who  are  as  fond  of  our  village  and  its 
people  as  any  other  soul  within  its  borders,  and 
who,  for  their  own  sake  as  well  as  that  of  Stephen 
Minster's  memory,  deserve  respect  and  liking  at 
your  hands. 

"  I  may  tell  you  frankly  that  they  were  misled 
and  deceived  by  agents,  in  whom,  mistakenly  enough, 
they  trusted,  into  temporarily  giving  power  to  these 
unworthy  men.  The  result  was  a  series  of  steps 
which  they  deplored,  but  did  not  know  how  to  stop. 
A  few  days  ago  I  was  called  into  the  case  to  see 
what  could  be  done  toward  undoing  the  mischief 
from  which  they,  and  you,  and  the  townspeople  gen 
erally,  suffer.  Since  then  I  have  been  hard  at  work 
both  in  court  and  out  of  it,  and  I  believe  I  can  say 
with  authority  that  the  attempt  to  plunder  the  Min 
ster  estate  and  to  impoverish  you  will  be  beaten  all 
along  the  line." 

This  time  the  outburst  of  cheering  was  spon 
taneous  and  prolonged.  When  it  died  away,  some 
voice  called  out,  "  Three  cheers  for  the  ladies  ! "  and 
these  were  given,  too,  not  without  laughter  at  the 
jack-o'-lantern  boy,  who  waved  his  pumpkin  vigor 
ously. 

"  One  word  more,"  called  out  Tracy,  "  and  I  hope 
you  will  take  in  good  part  what  I  am  going  to  say. 
When  I  made  my  way  up  through  the  grounds,  I  was 
struck  by  the  fact  that  nobody  seemed  to  know  just 
why  he  had  come  here.  I  gather  now  that  word 


<\/\<]  The  Lawton  Girl. 

was  passed  around  during  the  day  that  there  would 
be  a  crowd  here,  and  that  something,  nobody  under 
stood  just  what,  would  be  done  after  they  got  here. 
I  do  not  know  who  started  the  idea,  or  who  circu 
lated  the  word.  It  might  be  worth  your  while  to 
find  out.  Meanwhile,  don't  you  agree  with  me  that 
it  is  an  unsatisfactory  and  uncivil  way  of  going  at 
the  thing?  This  is  a  free  country,  but  just  because 
it  is  free,  we  ought  to  feel  the  more  bound  to  respect 
one  another's  rights.  There  are  countries  in  which, 
I  dare  say,  if  I  were  a  citizen,  or  rather  a  subject,  I 
might  feel  it  my  duty  to  head  a  mob  or  join  a  riot. 
But  here  there  ought  to  be  no  mob  ;  there  should 
be  no  room  for  even  thought  of  a  riot.  Our  very 
strength  lies  in  the  idea  that  we  are  our  own  police 
men — our  own  soldiery.  I  say  this  not  because  one 
in  a  hundred  of  you  meant  any  special  harm  in  com 
ing  here,  but  because  the  notion  of  coming  itself  was 
not  American.  Beware  of  men  who  suggest  that  kind 
of  thing.  Beware  of  men  who  preach  the  theory  that 
because  you  are  puddlers  or  moulders  or  firemen, 
therefore  you  are  different  from  the  rest  of  your  fel 
low-citizens.  I,  for  one,  resent  the  idea  that  because 
I  am  a  lawyer,  and  you,  for  example,  are  a  black 
smith,  therefore  we  belong  to  different  classes.  I 
wish  with  all  my  heart  that  everybody  resented  it, 
and  that  that  abominable  word  '  classes  '  could  be 
wiped  out  of  the  English  language  as  it  is  spoken  in 
America.  That  is  all.  I  am  glad  if  you  feel  easier 
in  your  minds  than  you  did  when  you  came.  If  you 
do,  I  guess  there's  been  no  harm  done  by  your  com' 


The  Conquest  of  the  Mob.  445 

ing  which  isn't  more  than  balanced  by  the  good  that 
has  come  out  of  it.  Only  next  time,  if  you  don't 
mind,  we'll  have  our  meeting  somewhere  else,  where 
it  will  be  easier  to  speak  than  it  is  in  a  snowstorm, 
and  where  we  won't  keep  our  neighbors  awake.  And 
now  good-night,  everybody." 

Out  of  the  satisfied  and  amiable  murmur  which 
spread  through  the  crowd  at  this,  there  rose  a  sharp, 
querulous  voice : 

"  Give  us  the  names  of  the  men  who,  you  say, 
were  responsible." 

"  No,  I  can't  do  that  to-night.  But  if  you  read 
the  next  list  of  indictments  found  by  the  grand 
jury  of  Dearborn  County,  my  word  as  a  lawyer 
you'll  find  them  all  there." 

The  loudest  cheer  of  the  evening  burst  upon  the 
air  at  this,  and  there  was  a  sustained  roar  when 
Tracy's  name  was  shouted  out  above  the  tumult. 
Some  few  men  crowded  up  to  the  steps  to  shake 
hands  with  him,  and  many  others  called  out  to  him 
a  personal  "  good-night."  The  last  of  those  to 
shake  the  accumulated  snow  from  their  collars  and 
hats,  and  turn  their  steps  homeward,  noted  that  the 
whole  front  of  the  Minster  house  had  suddenly  be 
come  illuminated. 

Thus  Reuben's  simple  and  highly  fortuitous  con 
quest  of  what  had  been  planned  to  be  a  mob  was 
accomplished.  It  is  remembered  to  this  day  as  the 
best  thing  any  man  ever  did  single-handed  in  Thes- 
saly,  and  it  is  always  spoken  of  as  the  foundation 
of  his  present  political  eminence.  But  he  himself 


446  The  Lawton  Girl. 

would  say  now,  upon  reflection,  that  he  succeeded 
because  the  better  sense  of  his  auditors,  from  the 
outset,  wanted  him  to  succeed,  and  because  he  was 
lucky  enough  to  impress  a  very  decent  and  bright- 
witted  lot  of  men  with  the  idea  that  he  wasn't  a 
humbug. 

At  the  moment  he  was  in  no  mood  to  analyze  his 
success.  His  hair  was  streaming  with  melted  snow, 
his  throat  was  painfully  hoarse  and  sore,  and  the 
fatigue  from  speaking  so  loud,  and  the  reaction  from 
his  great  excitement,  combined  to  make  him  feel  a 
very  weak  brother  indeed. 

So  utterly  wearied  was  he  that  when  the  door  of 
the  now  lighted  hallway  opened  behind  him,  and 
Miss  Kate  herself,  standing  in  front  of  the  servant 
on  the  threshold,  said:  "  We  want  you  to  come  in, 
Mr.  Tracy,"  he  turned  mechanically  and  went  in, 
thinking  more  of  a  drink  of  some  sort  and  a  chance 
to  sit  down  beside  her,  than  of  all  the  possible 
results  of  his  speech  to  the  crowd. 

The  effect  of  warmth  and  welcome  inside  the 
mansion  was  grateful  to  all  his  senses.  He  parted 
with  his  hat  and  overcoat,  took  the  glass  of  claret 
which  was  offered  him,  and  allowed  himself  to  be 
led  into  the  drawing-room  and  given  a  seat,  all  in  a 
happy  daze,  which  was,  in  truth,  so  very  happy,  that 
he  was  dimly  conscious  of  the  beginnings  of  tears  in 
his  eyes.  It  seemed  now  that  the  strain  upon  his 
mind  and  heart — the  anger,  and  fright,  and  terrible 
anxiety — had  lasted  for  whole  weary  years.  Trial 


The  Conquest  of  the  Mob.  44? 

by  soul-torture  was  new  to  him,  and  this  ordeal 
through  which  he  had  passed  left  him  curiously 
flabby  and  tremulous. 

He  lay  back  in  the  easy-chair  in  an  ecstasy  of 
physical  lassitude  and  mental  content,  surrendering 
himself  to  the  delight  of  watching  the  beautiful  girl 
before  him,  and  of  listening  to  the  music  of  her 
voice.  The  liquid  depths  of  brown  eyes  into  which 
he  looked,  and  the  soft  tones  which  wooed  his  hear 
ing,  produced  upon  him  vaguely  the  sensation  of 
shining  white  robes  and  celestial  harps — an  indefi 
nitely  glorious  recompense  for  the  travail  that  lay 
behind  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 

Nothing  was  further  from  him  than  the  tempta 
tion  to  break  this  bright  spell  by  speech. 

"  We  heard  almost  every  word  of  what  you  said," 
Kate  was  saying.  "  When  you  began  we  were  in 
this  room,  crouched  there  by  the  window — that  is, 
Ethel  and  I  were,  for  mamma  refused  to  even  pre 
tend  to  listen — and  at  first  we  thought  it  was  one 
of  the  mob,  and  then  Ethel  recognized  your  voice. 
That  almost  annoyed  me,  for  it  seemed  as  if  /  should 
have  been — at  least,  equally  quick  to  know  it — that 
is,  I  mean,  I've  heard  you  speak  so  much  more  than 
she  has.  And  then  we  both  hurried  up-stairs,  and 
lifted  the  window — and  oh  !  but  we  listened  ! 

"  And  from  the  moment  we  knew  it  was  you — 
that  you  were  here — we  felt  perfectly  safe.  It  doesn't 
seem  now  that  we  were  very  much  afraid,  even  be 
fore  that,  although  probably  we  were.  There  was 
a  lot  of  hooting,  and  that  dreadful  blowing  on  horns, 


44%  The  Lawton  GirL 

and  all  that,  and  once  somebody  rang  the  door-bell ; 
but,  beyond  throwing  snowballs,  nothing  else  was 
done.  So  I  daresay  they  only  wanted  to  scare  us. 
Of  course  it  was  the  fire  that  made  us  really  nervous. 
We  got  that  brave  girl's  warning  about  the  mob's 
coming  here  just  a  little  while  before  the  sky  began 
to  redden  with  the  blaze  ;  and  that  sight,  coming  on 
the  heels  of  her  letter — " 

"  What  girl?     What  letter?"  asked  Reuben. 

"Here  it  is,"  answered  Kate,  drawing  a  crum 
pled  sheet  of  paper  from  her  bosom,  and  reading 
aloud  : 

"  DEAR  Miss  MINSTER: 

"I  have  just  heard  that  a  crowd  of  men  are  coming  to  your 
house  to-night  to  do  violent  things.  I  am  starting  out  to  try  and 
bring  you  help.  Meanwhile,  I  send  you  my  father,  who  will  do 
whatever  you  tell  him  to  do. 

"  Gratefully  yours, 

"  JESSICA  LAWTON." 

Reuben  had  risen  abruptly  to  his  feet  before  the 
signature  was  reached. 

"I  am  ashamed  of  myself,"  he  said;  "I've  left 
her  out  there  all  this  while.  And  she  was  ill,  too ! 
There  was  so  much  else  that  really  she  escaped  my 
memory  altogether." 

He  had  made  his  way  out  into  the  hall  and  taken 
up  his  hat  and  coat. 

"You  will  come  back,  won't  you?"  Kate  asked. 
"  There  are  so  many  things  to  talk  over,  with  all  of 
us.  And — and  bring  her  too,  if — if  she  will  come." 

With   a  sign  of  acquiescence  and  comprehension 


The  Conquest  of  the  Mob.  449 

Reuben  darted  down  the  steps  and  into  the  dark 
ness.  In  a  very  few  minutes  he  returned,  disap 
pointment  written  all  over  his  face. 

"  She's  gone.  Gedney,  the  man  I  left  with  the 
sleigh,  says  she  went  off  as  soon  as  I  had  got  out  of 
sight.  I  had  offered  to  have  him  drive  her  home, 
but  she  refused.  She's  a  curiously  independent 
girl." 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  said  Kate.  "  But  I  will  go 
over  the  first  thing  in  the  morning  and  thank  her." 

"  You  don't  as  yet  know  the  half  of  what  you 
have  to  thank  her  for,"  put  in  the  lawyer.  "  I  don't 
mean  that  it  was  so  great  a  thing — my  coming — but 
she  drove  all  the  way  out  to  my  mother's  farm  to 
bring  me  here  to-night,  and  fainted  when  she  got 
there.  She  was  really  ill.  If  her  father  is  still  here, 
I  think  he'd  better  go  at  once  to  her  place,  and  see 
about  her." 

The  suggestion  seemed  a  good  one,  and  was  in 
stantly  acted  upon.  Ben  Lawton  had  been  in  the 
kitchen,  immensely  proud  of  his  position  as  the 
responsible  garrison  of  a  beleaguered  house,  and 
came  out  into  the  hallway  now  with  a  full  stomach 
and  a  satisfied  expression  on  his  lank  face. 

He  assented  with  readiness  to  Reuben's  idea, 
when  it  was  explained  to  him. 

"  So  she  druv  out  to  your  mother's  place  for  you, 
did  she  ?  "  he  commented,  admiringly.  "  That  girl's 
a  genuwine  chip  of  the  old  block.  I  mean,"  he 
added,  with  an  apologetic  smile,  "of  fhe  old,  old 
block.  I  ain't  got  so  much  git-up-and-git  about  me, 
29 


450  The  Lawton  Girl. 

that  I  know  of,  but  her  grandfather  was  a  regular 
snorter!  " 

"  We  shall  not  forget  how  much  we  are  obliged 
to  you,  Mr.  Lawton,"  said  Kate,  pleasantly,  offering 
him  her  hand.  "  Be  sure  that  you  tell  your  daugh 
ter,  too,  how  grateful  we  all  are." 

Ben  took  the  delicate  hand  thus  amazingly  ex 
tended  to  him,  and  shook  it  with  formal  awkward 
ness. 

"  I  didn't  seem  to  do  much,"  he  said,  deprecatingly, 
"and  perhaps  I  wouldn't  have  amounted  to  much, 
neether,  if  it  had  a-come  to  fightin'  and  gougin'  and 
wras'lin'  round  generally.  But  you  can  bet  your 
boots,  ma'am,  that  I'd  a-done  what  I  could !  " 

With  this  chivalrous  assurance  Ben  withdrew,  and 
marched  down  the  steps  with  a  carriage  more  nearly 
erect  than  Thessaly  had  ever  seen  him  assume  be 
fore. 

The  heavy  front  door  swung  to,  and  Reuben 
realized,  with  a  new  rush  of  charmed  emotion,  that 
heaven  had  opened  for  him  once  more. 

A  servant  came  and  whispered  something  to  Miss 
Kate.  The  latter  nodded,  and  then  turned  to 
Reuben  with  a  smile  full  of  light  and  softness. 

"  If  you  will  give  me  your  arm,"  she  said,  in  a 
delicious  murmur,  "  we  will  go  into  the  dining-room. 
My  mother  and  sister  are  waiting  for  us  there.  We 
are  not  supper-people  as  a  rule,  but  it  seemed  right 
to  have  one  to-night." 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE   SHINING   REWARD. 

THE  scene  which  opened  upon  Reuben's  eyes  was 
like  a  vista  of  fairyland.  The  dark  panelled  room, 
with  its  dim  suggestions  of  gold  frames  and  heavy 
curtains,  and  its  background  of  palms  and  oleanders, 
contributed  with  the  reticence  of  richness  to  the 
glowing  splendor  of  the  table  in  its  centre.  Here 
all  light  was  concentrated — light  which  fell  from 
beneath  ruby  shades  at  the  summits  of  tall  candles, 
and  softened  the  dazzling  whiteness  of  the  linen, 
mellowed  the  burnished  gleam  of  the  silver  plate, 
reflected  itself  in  tender,  prismatic  hues  from  the 
facets  of  the  cut-glass  decanters.  There  were  flow 
ers  here  which  gave  forth  still  the  blended  fragrance 
of  their  hot-house  home,  and  fragile,  painted  china, 
and  all  the  nameless  things  of  luxury  which  can 
make  the  breaking  of  bread  a  poem. 

Reuben  had  seen  something  dimly  resembling 
this  in  New  York  once  or  twice  at  semi-public  din 
ners.  The  thought  that  this  higher  marvel  was  in 
his  honor  intoxicated  his  reason.  The  other  thought 
— that  conceivably  his  future  might  lie  all  in  this 
flower-strewn,  daintily  lighted  path — was  too  heady, 
too  full  of  threatened  delirium,  to  be  even  enter- 


452  The  Lawton  Girl. 

tained.  With  an  anxious  hold  upon  himself,  he  felt 
his  way  forward  to  self-possession.  It  came  sooner 
than  he  had  imagined  it  would,  and  thereafter  every 
thing  belonged  to  a  dream  of  delight. 

The  ladies  were  all  dressed  more  elaborately  than 
he  had  observed  them  to  be  on  any  previous  occa 
sion,  and,  at  the  outset,  there  was  something  dis 
concerting  in  this.  Speedily  enough,  though,  there 
came  the  reflection  that  his  clothes  were  those  in 
which  he  had  raced  breathlessly  from  the  farm,  in 
which  he  had  faced  and  won  the  crowd  outside,  and 
then,  all  at  once,  he  was  at  perfect  ease. 

He  told  them — addressing  his  talk  chiefly  to  Mrs. 
Minster,  who  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table,  to  his  left 
—the  story  of  Jessica's  ride,  of  her  fainting  on  her 
arrival,  and  of  the  furious  homeward  drive.  From 
this  he  drifted  to  the  final  proofs  which  had  been 
procured  at  Cadmus — he  had  sent  Gedney  home 
with  the  horses,  and  was  to  see  him  early  in  the 
morning — and  then  to  the  steps  toward  a  criminal 
prosecution  which  he  would  summarily  take. 

"  So  far  as  I  can  see,  Mrs.  Minster,"  he  concluded, 
when  the  servant  had  again  left  the  room,  "  no  real 
loss  will  result  from  this  whole  imbroglio.  It  may 
even  show  a  net  gain,  when  everything  is  cleared 
up  ;  for  your  big  loan  must  really  give  you  control 
of  the  Thessaly  Manufacturing  Company,  in  law. 
These  fellows  staked  their  majority  interest  in  that 
concern  to  win  your  whole  property  in  the  game. 
They  have  lost,  and  the  proceeds  must  go  to  you. 
Of  course,  it  is  not  entirely  clear  how  the  matter  will 


The  Shining  Reward.  453 

shape  itself;  but  my  notion  is  that  you  will  come 
out  winner." 

Mrs.  Minster  smiled  complacently.  "  My  daugh 
ters  thought  that  I  knew  nothing  about  business  !  " 
she  said,  with  an  air  of  easy  triumph. 

The  daughters  displayed  great  eagerness  to  leave 
this  branch  of  the  matter  undiscussed. 

"And  will  it  really  be  necessary  to  prosecute 
these  men  ?  "  asked  Ethel,  from  Reuben's  right. 

The  lawyer  realized,  even  before  he  spoke,  that 
not  a  little  of  his  bitterness  had  evaporated.  "  Men 
ought  to  be  punished  for  such  a  crime  as  they  com 
mitted,"  he  said.  "  If  only  as  a  duty  to  the  public, 
they  should  be  prosecuted." 

He  was  looking  at  Kate  as  he  spoke,  and  in  her 
glance,  as  their  eyes  met,  he  read  something  which 
prompted  him  hastily  to  add  : 

"  Of  course,  I  am  in  your  hands  in  the  matter.  I 
have  committed  myself  with  the  crowd  outside  to  the 
statement  that  they  should  be  punished.  I  was  full, 
then,  of  angry  feelings  ;  and  I  still  think  that  they 
ought  to  be  punished.  But  it  is  really  your  ques 
tion,  not  mine.  And  I  may  even  tell  you  that  there 
would  probably  be  a  considerable  financial  advantage 
in  settling  the  thing  with  them,  instead  of  taking  it 
before  the  grand  jury." 

"  That  is  a  consideration  which  we  won't  discuss," 
said  Kate.  "  If  my  mind  were  clear  as  to  the  neces 
sity  of  a  prosecution,  I  would  not  alter  the  decision 
for  any  amount  of  money.  But  my  sister  and  I  have 
been  talking  a  great  deal  about  this  matter,  and  we 


454  The  Lawton  Girl. 

feel —  You  know  that  Mr.  Boyce  was,  for  a  time,  on 
quite  a  friendly  footing  in  this  house." 

"Yes;  I  know."    Reuben  bowed  his  head  gravely. 

"  Well,  you  yourself  said  that  if  one  was  prose 
cuted,  they  all  must  be." 

"No  doubt.  Wendover  and  Tenney  were  smart 
enough  to  put  the  credulous  youngster  in  the  very 
forefront  of  everything.  Until  these  affidavits  came 
to  hand  to-day,  it  would  have  been  far  easier  to  con 
vict  him  than  them." 

"  Precisely,"  urged  Kate.  "  Credulous  is  just  the 
word.  He  was  weak,  foolish,  vain — whatever  you 
like.  They  led  him  into  the  thing.  But  I  don't 
believe  that  at  the  outset,  or,  indeed,  till  very 
recently,  he  had  any  idea  of  being  a  party  to  a  plan 
to  plunder  us.  There  are  reasons,"  the  girl  blushed 
a  little,  and  hesitated,  "to  be  frank,  there  are  rea 
sons  for  my  thinking  so." 

Reuben,  noting  the  faint  flush  of  embarrassment, 
catching  the  doubtful  inflection  of  the  words,  felt 
that  he  comprehended  everything,  and  mirrored  that 
feeling  in  his  glance. 

"  I  quite  follow  you,"  he  said.  "  It  is  my  notion 
that  he  was  deceived,  at  the  beginning." 

"  Others  deceived  him,  and  still  more  he  deceived 
himself,"  responded  Kate. 

"And  that  is  why,"  put  in  Ethel,  "we  feel  like 
asking  you  not  to  take  the  matter  into  the  courts — 
I  mean  so  as  to  put  him  in  prison.  It  would  be 
too  dreadful  to  think  of — to  take  a  man  who  had 
dined  at  your  house,  and  been  boating  with  you, 


The  Shining  Reward.  455 

and  had  driven  with  you  all  over  the  Orange  Moun 
tains,  picking  wild-flowers  for  you  and  all  that,  and 
put  him  into  prison,  where  he  would  have  his  hair 
shaved  off,  and  tramp  up  and  down  on  a  treadmill. 
No  ;  we  mustn't  do  that,  Mr.  Tracy." 

Kate  added  musingly :  "  He  has  lost  so  much,  we 
can  afford  to  be  generous,  can  we  not  ?  " 

Then  Reuben  felt  that  there  could  be  no  answer 
possible  except  "  yes."  His  heart  pleaded  with  his 
brain  for  a  lover's  interpretation  of  this  speech  ;  and 
his  tongue,  to  evade  the  issue,  framed  some  halting 
words  about  allowing  him  to  go  over  the  whole  case 
to-morrow,  and  postponing  a  final  decision  until  that 
had  been  done. 

The  consent  of  silence  was  accorded  to  this,  and 
everybody  at  the  table  knew  that  there  would  be 
no  prosecutions.  Upon  the  instant  the  atmosphere 
grew  lighter. 

"  And  now  for  the  real  thing,"  said  Kate,  gayly. 
"  I  am  commissioned  on  behalf  of  the  entire  family 
to  formally  thank  you  for  coming  to  our  rescue  to 
night.  Mamma  did  not  hear  your  speech — she  res 
olutely  sat  in  the  library,  pretending  to  read,  during 
the  whole  rumpus,  and  we  were  in  such  a  hurry  to 
get  up-stairs  that  we  didn't  tell  her  when  you  began 
— but  she  couldn't  help  hearing  the  horns,  and  she 
is  as  much  obliged  to  you  as  we  are  ;  and  that  is 
very,  very,  very  much  indeed  !  " 

"Yes,  indeed,"  assented  Mrs.  Minster.  "I  don't 
know  where  the  police  were,  at  all." 

"  The  police  could  have  done  next  to  nothing,  if 


4$6  The  Lawton  GirL 

they  had  been  here,"  said  Reuben.  "The  visit  of 
the  crowd  was  annoying  enough,  and  discreditable 
in  its  way,  but  I  don't  really  imagine  there  was 
ever  any  actual  danger.  The  men  felt  disagree 
able  about  the  closing  of  the  works  and  the  impor 
tation  of  the  French  Canadians,  and  I  don't  blame 
them  ;  but  as  a  body  they  never  had  any  idea  of 
molesting  you.  My  own  notion  is  that  the  mob  was 
organized  by  outsiders — by  men  who  had  an  end  to 
serve  in  frightening  you — and  that  after  the  crowd 
got  here  it  didn't  know  what  to  do  with  itself.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  mob  isn't  an  American  institution. 
Its  component  parts  are  too  civilized,  too  open  to 
appeals  to  reason.  As  soon  as  I  told  these  people 
the  facts  in  the  case,  they  were  quite  ready  to  go, 
and  they  even  cheered  for  you  before  they  went." 

"  Ethel  tells  me  that  you  promised  them  the  fur 
naces  should  be  opened  promptly,"  said  the  mother, 
with  her  calm,  inquiring  glance,  which  might  mean 
sarcasm,  anger,  approval,  or  nothing  at  all. 

Reuben  answered  resolutely:  "  Yes,  Mrs.  Minster, 
I  did.  And  so  they  must  be  opened,  on  Monday. 
Let  us  be  frank  about  the  matter.  It  is  my  dearest 
wish  that  I  should  be  able  to  act  for  you  all  in  this 
whole  business.  But  I  have  gone  too  far  now,  the 
interests  involved  are  too  great,  to  make  a  pause 
here  possible.  The  very  essence  of  the  situation 
is  that  we  should  defy  the  trust,  and  throw  upon  it 
the  onus  of  stopping  us  if  it  can.  We  have  such  a 
grip  upon  the  men  who  led  you  into  that  trust,  and 
who  can  influence  the  decisions  of  its  directors,  that 


The  Shining  Reward.  457 

they  will  not  dare  to  show  fight.  The  force  of  cir 
cumstances  has  made  me  the  custodian  of  your 
interests  quite  as  much  as  of  your  daughters'.  I 
am  very  proud  and  happy  that  it  is  so.  It  is  true 
that  I  have  not  your  warrant  for  acting  in  your 
behalf;  but  if  you  will  permit  me  to  say  so,  that 
cannot  now  be  allowed  to  make  the  slightest  dif 
ference  in  my  action." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  you  are  to  be  rescued  in  spite  of 
yourself,"  said  Ethel,  merrily. 

The  young  people  were  all  smiling  at  one  another, 
and  to  their  considerable  relief  Mrs.  Minster  con 
cluded  to  smile  also. 

Nobody  attempted  to  analyze  the  mental  processes 
by  which  she  had  been  brought  around.  It  was 
enough  that  she  had  come  to  accept  the  situation. 
The  black  shadow  of  discord,  which  had  overhung 
the  household  so  long,  was  gone,  and  mother  and 
daughters  joined  in  a  sigh  of  grateful  relief. 

It  must  have  been  nearly  midnight  when  Reuben 
rose  finally  to  go.  There  had  been  so  much  to  talk 
about,  and  time  had  flown  so  softly,  buoyantly  along, 
that  the  evening  seemed  to  him  only  to  have  begun, 
and  he  felt  that  he  fain  would  have  had  it  go  on 
forever.  These  delicious  hours  that  were  past  had 
been  one  sweet  sustained  conspiracy  to  do  him  honor, 
to  minister  to  his  pleasure.  No  word  or  smile  or 
deferential  glance  of  attention  had  been  wanting  to 
make  complete  the  homage  with  which  the  family 
had  chosen  to  envelop  him.  The  sense  of  tender 
domestic  intimacy  had  surcharged  the  very  air  he 


458  The  Lawton  Girl. 

breathed.  It  had  not  even  been  necessary  to  keep 
the  ball  of  talk  in  motion  :  so  well  and  truly  did  they 
know  one  another,  that  silences  had  come  as  natural 
rests — silences  more  eloquent  than  spoken  words 
could  be  of  mutual  liking  and  trust.  The  outside 
world  had  shrunk  to  nothingness.  Here  within  this 
charmed  circle  of  softened  light  was  home.  All 
that  the  whole  universe  contained  for  him  of  beauty, 
of  romance,  of  reverential  desire,  of  happiness,  here 
within  touch  it  was  centred.  And  it  was  all,  all  his  ! 

The  farewells  that  found  their  way  into  phrases  left 
scarcely  a  mark  upon  his  memory.  There  had  been 
cordial,  softly  significant  words  of  smiling  leave- 
takingwith  Ethel  and  her  mother,  and  then,  divinely 
prompted  by  the  spirit  which  ruled  this  blessed 
hour,  they  had  gone  away,  and  he  stood  alone  in  the 
hallway  with  the  woman  he  worshipped.  He  held 
her  hand  in  his,  and  there  was  no  need  for  speech. 

Slowly,  devoutly,  he  bowed  his  head  over  this 
white  hand,  and  pressed  his  lips  upon  it.  There  were 
tears  in  his  eyes  when  he  stood  erect  again,  and 
through  them  he  saw  with  dim  rapture  the  marvel  of 
an  angel's  face,  pale,  yet  glowing  in  the  half  light, 
lovely  beyond  all  mortal  dreams  ;  and  on  this  face 
there  shone  a  smile,  tender,  languorous,  trembling 
with  the  supreme  ecstasy  of  a  soul. 

Were  words  spoken?     Reuben  could  hardly  have 
told  as  he  walked  away  down  the  path  to  the  street. 
"  Bless  you  !  bless  you!"   was    what  the  song-birds- 
carolled  in  his  brain  ;  but  whether  the  music  was  an 
echo  of  what  he  had  said,  did  not  make  itself  clear. 


The  Shining  Reward.  459 

He  was  scarcely  conscious  of  the  physical  element 
of  walking  in  his  progress.  Rather  it  seemed  to  him 
that  his  whole  being  was  afloat  in  the  ether,  wafted 
forward  by  the  halcyon  winds  of  a  beneficent  destiny. 
Was  there  ever  such  unthinkable  bliss  before  in  all 
the  vast  span  of  the  universe  ? 

The  snowfall  had  long  since  ceased,  and  the  clouds 
were  gone.  The  air  was  colder,  and  the  broad  sky 
was  brilliant  with  the  clear  starlight  of  winter.  To 
the  lover's  eyes,  the  great  planets  were  nearer, 
strangely  nearer,  than  they  had  ever  been  before, 
and  the  undying  fire  with  which  they  burned  was  the 
same  that  glowed  in  his  own  heart.  His  senses  linked 
themselves  to  the  grand  procession  of  the  skies.  The 
triumphant  onward  glide  of  the  earth  itself  within 
this  colossal  scheme  of  movement  was  apparent  to 
him,  and  seemed  but  a  part  of  his  own  resistless, 
glorified  onward  sweep.  Oh,  this — this  was  life  ! 

At  the  same  hour  a  heavy  and  lumpish  man 
made  his  way  homeward  by  a  neighboring  street, 
tramping  with  difficulty  through  the  hardening  snow 
which  lay  thick  upon  the  walks.  There  was  nothing 
buoyant  in  his  stride,  and  he  never  once  lifted  his 
eyes  to  observe  the  luminous  panorama  spread  over 
head.  With  his  hands  plunged  deep  into  his  pock 
ets,  and  his  cane  under  his  arm,  he  trudged  moodily 
along,  his  shoulders  rounded  and  his  brows  bent  in  a 
frown. 

An  acquaintance  going  in  the  other  direction  called 
out  cheerily  as  he  passed,  "  Hello,  General !  Pretty 


460  The  Lawton  Girl. 

tough  walking,  isn't  it?"  and  had  only  an  inarticu 
late  grunt  for  an  answer. 

There  were  evil  hints  abroad  in  the  village  below, 
this  night — stones  of  impending  revelations  of  fraud, 
hints  of  coming  prosecutions — and  General  Boyce 
had  heard  enough  of  these  to  grow  sick  at  heart. 
That  Horace  had  been  deeply  mixed  up  in  something 
scoundrelly,  seemed  only  too  evident.  Since  this 
foolish,  ungrateful  boy  had  left  the  paternal  roof,  his 
father  had  surrendered  himself  more  than  ever  to 
drink  ;  but  indulgence  now,  instead  of  the  old  bright 
ening  merriment  of  song  and  quip  and  pleasantly 
reminiscent  camp-fire  sparkle,  seemed  to  swing  him 
like  a  pendulum  between  the  extremes  of  sullen 
wrath  and  almost  tearful  weakness.  Something  of 
both  these  moods  weighted  his  mind  to-night,  and 
to  their  burden  was  added  a  crushingly  gloomy  ap 
prehension  that  naked  disgrace  was  coming  as  well. 
Precisely  what  it  was,  he  knew  not  ;  but  winks  and 
nods  and  unnatural  efforts  to  shift  the  conversation 
when  he  came  in  had  been  in  the  air  about  him  all 
the  evening.  The  very  vagueness  of  the  fear  lent  it 
fresh  terror. 

His  own  gate  was  reached  at  last,  and  he  turned 
wearily  into  the  path  which  encircled  the  small  yard 
to  reach  the  front  door.  He  cursorily  noted  the  ex 
istence  of  some  partially  obliterated  footprints  in  the 
snow,  and  took  it  for  granted  that  one  of  the  servants 
had  been  out  late. 

He  had  begun  fumbling  in  his  pocket  for  the  key, 
and  had  his  foot  on  the  lower  step,  before  he  dis- 


The  Shining  Reward.  461 

covered  in  the  dim  light  something  which  gave  even 
his  martial  nerves  a  start.  The  dark-clad  figure  of 
a  woman,  obviously  well  dressed,  apparently  young, 
lay  before  him,  the  head  and  arms  bent  under 
against  his  very  door. 

The  General  was  a  man  of  swift  decision  and  ready 
resource.  In  an  instant  he  had  lifted  the  figure  up 
out  of  the  snow  which  half  enveloped  it,  and  sus 
tained  it  in  one  arm,  while  with  the  other  he  sent 
the  reverberating  clamor  of  the  door-bell  pealing 
through  the  house.  Then,  unlocking  the  door,  he 
bore  his  burden  lightly  into  the  hall,  turned  up  the 
gas,  and  disposed  the  inanimate  form  on  a  chair. 

He  did  not  know  the  woman,  but  it  was  evident 
that  she  was  very  ill — perhaps  dying. 

When  the  servant  came  down,  he  bade  her  run 
with  all  possible  haste  for  Dr.  Lester,  who  lived  only 
a  block  or  so  away. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

"  I   TELL   YOU    I    HAVE   LIVED    IT    DOWN !  " 

INSTEAD  of  snow  and  cold  and  the  black  terror 
of  being  overwhelmed  by  stormy  night,  here  were 
light  and  warmth  and  a  curiously  sleepy  yet  volatile 
sense  of  comfort. 

Jessica's  eyes  for  a  long  time  rested  tranquilly 
upon  what  seemed  a  gigantic  rose  hanging  directly 
over  her  head.  Her  brain  received  no  impression 
whatever  as  to  why  it  was  there,  and  there  was  not 
the  slightest  impulse  to  wonder  or  to  think  about  it 
at  all.  Even  when  it  finally  began  to  descend  nearer, 
and  to  expand  and  unfold  pale  pink  leaves,  still  it 
was  satisfying  not  to  have  to  make  any  effort  toward 
understanding  it.  The  transformation  went  on  with 
infinite  slowness  before  her  vacantly  contented  vis 
ion.  Upon  all  sides  the  outer  leaves  gradually,  little 
by  little,  stretched  themselves  downward,  still  down 
ward,  until  they  enveloped  her  as  in  the  belief  some 
huge  inverted  lily.  Indefinite  spaces  of  time  inter 
vened,  and  then  it  became  vaguely  apparent  that 
faint  designs  of  other,  smaller  flowers  were  scattered 
over  these  large  environing  leaves,  and  that  a  soft, 
ruddy  light  came  through  them.  With  measured  de 
liberation,  as  if  all  eternity  were  at  its  disposal,  this 


"  /  Tell  You  I  Have  Lived  it  Down  /  "     463 

vast  floral  cone  revealed  itself  at  last  to  her  dim  con 
sciousness  as  being  made  of  some  thin,  figured  cloth. 
It  seemed  weeks — months — before  she  further  com 
prehended  that  the  rose  above  her  was  the  embroi 
dered  centre  of  a  canopy,  and  that  the  leaves 
depending  from  it  in  long,  graceful  curves  about  her 
were  bed-curtains. 

After  a  time  she  found  herself  lifting  her  hand 
upright  and  looking  at  it.  It  was  wan  and  white 
like  wax,  as  if  it  did  not  belong  to  her  at  all.  From 
the  wrist  there  was  turned  back  the  delicately 
quilted  cuff  of  a  man's  silk  night-shirt.  She  raised 
the  arm  in  its  novel  silken  sleeve,  and  thrust  it  for 
ward  with  some  unformed  notion  that  it  would 
prove  not  to  be  hers.  The  action  pushed  aside  the 
curtains,  and  a  glare  of  light  flashed  in,  under  which 
she  shut  her  eyes  and  gasped. 

When  she  looked  again,  an  elderly,  broad-figured 
man  with  a  florid  face  was  standing  close  beside  the 
bed,  gazing  with  anxiety  upon  her.  She  knew  that 
it  was  General  Boyce,  and  for  a  long  time  was  not 
surprised  that  he  should  be  there.  The  capacity  for 
wondering,  for  thinking  about  things,  seemed  not  to 
exist  in  her  brain.  She  looked  at  him  calmly  and 
did  not  dream  of  speaking. 

"Are  you  better?"  she  heard  him  eagerly  whis 
per.  "  Are  you  in  pain  ?  " 

The  complex  difficulty  of  two  questions  which 
required  separate  answers  troubled  her  remotely. 
She  made  some  faint  nodding  motion  of  her  head 
and  eyes,  and  then  lay  perfectly  still  again.  She 


464  The  Lawton  Girl. 

could  hear  the  sound  of  her  own 'breathing — a  hoarse, 
sighing  sound,  as  if  of  blowing  through  a  comb — 
and,  now  that  it  was  suggested  to  her,  there  was  a 
deadened  heavy  ache  in  her  breast. 

Still  placidly  surveying  the  General,  she  began  to 
be  conscious  of  remembering  things.  The  pictures 
came  slowly,  taking  form  with  a  fantastic  absence  of 
consecutive  meaning,  but  they  gradually  produced 
the  effect  of  a  recollection  upon  her  mind.  The 
starting  point — and  everything  else  that  went  before 
that  terrible  sinking,  despairing  struggle  through  the 
wet  snow — was  missing.  She  recalled  most  vividly 
of  all  being  seized  with  a  sudden  crisis  of  swimming 
giddiness  and  choking — her  throat  and  chest  all  afire 
with  the  tortures  of  suffocation.  It  was  under  a 
lamp-post,  she  remembered  ;  and  when  the  vehement 
coughing  was  over,  her  mouth  was  full  of  blood,  and 
there  were  terrifying  crimson  spatters  on  the  snow. 
She  had  stood  aghast  at  this,  and  then  fallen  to  weep 
ing  piteously  to  herself  with  fright.  How  strange 
it  was — in  the  anguish  of  that  moment  she  had 
moaned  out,  "O  mother,  mother!"  and  yet  she  had 
never  seen  that  parent,  and  had  scarcely  thought 
of  her  memory  even  for  many,  many  years. 

Then  she  had  blindly  staggered  on,  sinking  more 
than  once  from  sheer  exhaustion,  but  still  forcing  her 
self  forward,  her  wet  feet  weighing  like  leaden  balls, 
and  fierce  agonies  clutching  her  very  heart.  She  had 
fallen  in  the  snow  at  the  very  end  of  her  journey ;  had 
dragged  herself  laboriously,  painfully,  up  on  to  the 
steps,  and  had  beaten  feebly  on  the  panels  of  the 


"  /  Tell  You  I  Have  Lived  it  Down  !  "    465 

door  with  her  numbed  hands,  making  an  inarticulate 
moan  which  not  all  her  desperate  last  effort  could 
lift  into  a  cry  ;  and  then  there  had  come,  with  a 
great  downward  swoop  of  skies  and  storm,  utter 
blackness  and  collapse. 

She  closed  her  eyes  now  in  the  weariness  which 
this  effort  at  recollection  had  caused.  Her  senses 
wandered  off,  unbidden,  unguided,  to  a  dream  of 
the  buzzing  of  a  bee  upon  a  window-pane,  which 
was  somehow  like  the  stertorous  sound  of  her  own 
breathing. 

The  bee — a  big,  loud,  foolish  fellow,  with  yellow 
fur  upon  his  broad  back  and  thighs — had  flown  into 
the  schoolroom,  and  had  not  wit  enough  to  go  out 
again.  Some  of  the  children  were  giggling  over 
this,  but  she  would  not  join  them  because  Mr.  Tracy, 
the  schoolmaster  upon  the  platform,  did  not  wish  it. 
She  wanted  very  much  to  please  him.  Already  she 
delighted  in  the  hope  that  he  liked  her  better  than 
he  did  some  of  the  other  girls — scornful  girls  who 
came  from  wealthy  homes,  and  wore  better  dresses 
than  any  of  the  despised  Lawton  brood  could  ever 
hope  to  have. 

Silk  dresses,  opened  boldly  at  the  throat,  and  with 
long  trains  tricked  out  with  imitation  garlands.  They 
were  worn  now  by  older  girls — hard-faced,  jealous, 
cruel  creatures — and  these  sat  in  a  room  with  lace 
curtains  and  luxurious  furniture.  And  some  laughed 
with  a  ring  like  brass  in  their  voices,  and  some  wept 
furtively  in  corners,  and  some  cursed  their  God  and 
all  living  things  ;  and  there  was  the  odor  of  wine 
30 


466  The  Lawton  Girl. 

and  the  uproar  of  the  piano,  and  over  all  a  great, 
ceaseless  shame  and  terror. 

Escape  from  this  should  be  made  at  all  hazards ; 
and  the  long,  incredibly  fearful  flight,  with  pursuit 
always  pressing  hot  upon  her,  the  evil  fangs  of  the 
wolf-pack  snapping  in  the  air  all  about  her  fright 
ened  ears,  led  to  a  peaceful,  soft-carpeted  forest, 
where  the  low  setting  sun  spread  a  red  light  among 
the  big  tree-trunks.  Against  this  deep,  far-distant 
sky  there  was  the  figure  of  a  man  coming.  For  him 
she  waited  with  a  song  in  her  heart.  Did  she  not 
know  him?  It  was  Reuben  Tracy,  and  he  was  too 
gentle  and  good  not  to  see  her  when  he  passed. 
She  would  call  out  to  him — and  lo !  she  could 
not. 

Horace  was  with  her,  and  held  her  hand  ;  and 
they  both  gazed  with  terrified  longing  after  Tracy, 
and  could  not  cry  out  to  him  for  the  awful  dumbness 
that  was  on  them.  And  when  he,  refusing  to  see 
them,  spread  out  his  arms  in  anger,  the  whole  great 
forest  began  to  sway  and  circle  dizzily,  and  huge 
trees  toppled,  rocks  crashed  downward,  gaunt  giant 
reptiles  rose  from  yawning  caves  with  hideous  slimy 
eyes  in  a  lurid  ring  about  her.  And  she  would  save 
Horace  with  her  life,  and  fought  like  mad,  bleeding 
and  maimed  and  frenzied,  until  the  weight  of  mount 
ains  piled  upon  her  breast  held  her  down  in  helpless, 
choking  horror.  Then  only  came  the  power  to 
scream,  and — 

Out  of  the  roar  of  confusion  and  darkness  came 
suddenly  a  hush  and  the  return  of  light.  She  was 


11  /  Tell  You  I  Have  Lived  it  Down  !  "    467 

lying  in  the  curtained  bed,  and  a  tender  hand  was 
pressing  soft  cool  linen  to  her  lips. 

Opening  her  eyes  in  tranquil  weakness,  she  saw 
two  men  standing  at  her  bedside.  He  who  held  the 
cloth  in  his  hand  was  Dr.  Lester,  whom  she  remem 
bered  very  well.  The  other — he  whose  head  was 
bowed,  and  whose  eyes  were  fastened  upon  hers 
with  a  pained  and  affrighted  gaze — was  Horace 
Boyce. 

In  her  soul  she  smiled  at  him,  but  no  answering 
softness  came  to  his  harrowed  face. 

"  I  told  your  father  everything,"  she  heard  the 
doctor  say  in  a  low  tone.  "  I  recognized  her  on 
the  instant.  I  happened  to  have  attended  her,  by 
the  merest  chance,  when  her  child  was  born." 

"Her  child?"  the  other  asked,  in  the  same  low, 
far-away  voice. 

"Yes — and  your  child.  He  is  in  Thessaly  now,  a 
boy  nearly  six  years  old." 

"  Good  God  !     I  never  knew — " 

"  You  seem  to  have  taken  precious  good  care  not 
to  know,"  said  the  doctor,  with  grave  dislike.  "  This 
is  the  time  and  place  to  speak  plainly  to  you,  Boyce. 
This  poor  girl  has  come  to  her  death  through  the 
effort  to  save  you  from  disgrace.  She  supposed  you 
lived  here,  and  dragged  herself  here  to  help  you." 

Jessica  heard  the  sentence  of  doom  without  even 
a  passing  thought.  Every  energy  left  in  her  feebly 
fluttering  brain  was  concentrated  upon  the  ques 
tion,  Is  he  saved?  Vaguely  the  circumstances  of 
the  papers,  of  the  threats  against  Horace,  of  her 


468  The  Lawton  Girl. 

desires  and  actions,  seemed  to  come  back  to  her 
memory.  She  waited  in  dazed  suspense  to  hear 
what  Horace  would  say ;  but  he  only  hung  his  head 
the  lower,  and  left  the  doctor  to  go  on. 

"She  raved  for  hours  last  night,"  he  said,  "after 
the  women  had  got  her  to  bed,  and  we  had  raised 
her  out  of  the  comatose  state,  about  saving  you 
from  State  prison.  First  she  would  plead  with 
Tracy,  then  she  would  appeal  to  you  to  fly,  and 
so  backwards  and  forwards,  until  she  wore  herself 
out.  The  papers  she  had  got  hold  of — they  must 
have  slipped  out  of  Gedney's  pocket  into  the  sleigh. 
I  suppose  you  know  that  I  took  them  back  to  Tracy 
this  morning?" 

Still  Horace  made  no  answer,  but  bent  that 
crushed  and  vacant  gaze  upon  her  face.  She  mar 
velled  that  he  could  not  see  she  was  awake  and  con 
scious,  and  still  more  that  the  strength  and  will  to 
speak  were  withheld  from  her.  The  dreadful  pres 
sure  upon  her  breast  was  making  itself  felt  again,  and 
the  painful  sound  of  the  labored  breathing  took  on 
the  sombre  rhythm  of  a  distant  death-chant.  Oh, 
would  he  never  speak!  No:  still  the  doctor  went 
on  : 

"  Tracy  will  be  here  in  a  few  minutes.  He's  ter 
ribly  upset  by  the  thing,  and  has  gone  first  to  tell 
the  news  at  the  Minsters'.  Do  you  want  to  see 
him  when  he  comes  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  what  I  want,"  said  Horace,  gloom 
ily. 

44  If  I  were  you,  I  would  go  straight  to  him  and 


"  /  Tell  You  I  Have  Lived  it  Down  /  "     469 

say  frankly,  '  I  have  been  a  damned  fool,  and  a  still 
damneder  hypocrite,  and  I  throw  myself  on  your 
mercy.'  He's  the  tenderest-hearted  man  alive,  and 
this  sight  here  will  move  him.  Upon  my  word,  I 
can  hardly  keep  the  tears  out  of  my  eyes  myself." 

Jessica  saw  as  through  a  mist  that  these  two  men's 
faces,  turned  upon  her,  were  softened  with  a  deep 
compassion.  Then  suddenly  the  power  to  speak 
came  to  her.  It  was  a  puny  and  unnatural  voice 
which  fell  upon  her  ears — low  and  hoarsely  grating, 
and  the  product  of  much  pain. 

"  Go  away — doctor,"  she  murmured.  "  Leave  him 
here." 

Horace  sat  softly  upon  the  edge  of  the  bed,  and 
gathered  her  two  hands  tenderly  in  his.  He  did  not 
attempt  to  keep  back  the  tears  which  welled  to  his 
eyes,  nor  did  he  try  to  talk.  Thus  they  were  to 
gether  for  what  seemed  a  long  time,  surrounded  by 
a  silence  which  was  full  of  voices  to  them  both.  A 
wan  smile  settled  upon  her  face  as  she  held  him  in 
her  intent  gaze. 

"Take  the  boy,"  she  whispered  at  last;  "he  is 
Horace,  too.  Don't  let  him  lie — ever — to  any  girl." 

The  young  man  groaned  in  spite  of  himself,  and 
for  answer  gently  pressed  her  hands.  "  I  promise 
you  that,  Jess,"  he  said,  after  a  time,  in  a  broken 
voice.  He  bent  over  and  kissed  her  on  the  fore 
head.  The  damp  roughness  of  the  skin  chilled  and 
terrified  him,  but  the  radiance  on  her  face  deepened. 

"  It  hurts — to  breathe,"  she  said,  after  a  time, 
with  a  glance  of  affectionate  apology  in  her  smile. 


470  The  Lawton  Girl. 

Subdued  noises  were  faintly  heard  now  in  the 
hallway  outside,  and  presently  the  door  was  opened 
cautiously,  and  a  tall  new  figure  entered  the  room. 
After  a  moment's  hesitation  Reuben  Tracy  tiptoed 
his  way  to  the  bedside,  and  stood  gravely  behind 
and  above  his  former  partner. 

"  Is  she  conscious?"  he  asked  of  Boyce,  in  a  trem 
ulous  whisper ;  and  Horace,  bending  his  head  still 
lower,  murmured  between  choking  sobs:  "It  is  Mr. 
Tracy,  Jess,  come  to  say — to  see  you." 

Her  eyes  brightened  with  intelligence.  "Good — 
good,"  she  said,  slowly,  as  if  musing  to  herself. 
The  gaze  which  she  fastened  upon  Reuben's  face 
was  strangely  full  of  intense  meaning,  and  he  felt 
it  piercing  his  very  heart.  Minutes  went  by  under 
the  strain  of  this  deep,  half-wild,  appealing  look. 
At  last  she  spoke,  with  a  greater  effort  at  distinct 
ness  than  before,  and  in  a  momentarily  clearer  tone. 

"  You  were  always  kind,"  she  said.  "  Don't  hurt 
— my  boy.  Shake  hands  with  him — for  my  sake." 

The  two  young  men  obeyed  mechanically,  after 
an  instant's  pause,  and  without  looking  at  each  other. 
Neither  had  eyes  save  for  "the  white  face  on  the 
pillows  in  front  of  them,  and  for  the  gladdened, 
restful  light  which  spread  softly  over  it  as  their 
hands  touched  in  amity  before  her  vision. 

Now  she  seemed  no  longer  to  see  them. 

In  the  languor  of  peace  which  had  come  to  possess 
her,  even  the  sense  of  pain  in  breathing  was  gone. 
There  were  shadowy  figures  on  the  retina  of  her 
brain,  but  they  conveyed  no  idea  save  of  general 


"  /  Tell  You  I  Have  Livtd  it  Down  /  "      471 

beatitude  to  her  mind.  The  space  in  which  her 
senses  floated  was  radiant  and  warm  and  full  of 
formless  beauty.  Various  individuals — types  of  her 
loosening  ties  to  life — came  and  went  almost  un 
heeded  in  this  daze. 

Lucinda,  vehemently  weeping,  and  holding  the 
little  fair-haired,  wondering  boy  over  the  bed  for  her 
final  kiss,  passed  away  like  a  dissolving  mist.  Her 
father's  face,  too,  dawned  upon  this  dream,  tear- 
stained  and  woful,  and  faded  again  into  nothing 
ness.  Other  flitting  apparitions  there  were,  even 
more  vague  and  brief,  melting  noiselessly  into  the 
darkened  hush. 

The  unclouded  calm  of  this  lethargy  grew  troubled 
presently  when  there  fell  upon  her  dulled  ear  the 
low  tones  of  a  remembered  woman's  voice.  Enough 
of  consciousness  flickered  up  to  tell  her  whose  it 
was.  She  strained  her  eyes  in  the  gathering  shad 
ows  to  see  Kate  Minster,  and  began  restlessly  to 
roll  her  head  upon  the  pillow. 

" Where — where — tier?"  she  moaned,  striving  to 
stretch  forth  her  hand. 

It  was  lifted  and  held  softly  in  a  tender  grasp, 
and  she  felt  as  well  a  compassionate  stroking  touch 
laid  upon  her  forehead.  The  gentle  magnetism  of 
these  helped  the  dying  girl  to  bring  into  momentary 
being  the  image  of  a  countenance  close  above  hers — 
a  dark,  beautiful  face,  all  melting  now  with  affection 
and  grief.  She  smiled  faintly  into  this  face,  and  lay 
still  again  for  a  long  time.  The  breathing  grew 
terribly  shorter  and  more  labored,  the  light  faded 


472  The  Ltrwton  Girl. 

from  the  eyes;  but  the  patient,  melancholy  sweet 
ness  of  the  smile  was  fixed. 

All  at  once,  in  a  strange,  muffled  murmur,  and 
with  almost  motionless  lips,  she  began  talking  to 
herself.  The  words  came  indistinctly,  and  only  Kate, 
bending  close,  could  catch  their  drift. 

"Am  I  in  time  for  the  wedding — Reuben  Tracy's 
and  hers?"  this  faltering,  far-away  voice  said.  "I 
hurried  fast — the  sky  was  all  ablaze.  You  must  let 
me  in  !  I  am  invited — see  ! — here  are  the  flowers 
in  my  hair.  Let  me  in — oh,  let  me  in ! " 

Perhaps  she  knew  something  of  the  tearful  kisses 
that  fell  upon  her  brow.  "  Let  me  in,"  she  mur 
mured  once  again.  Then,  with  infinite  pathos,  there 
followed  these  last,  dying-away  words : 

"  I  tell  you  I  have  lived  it  down ! " 


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